The Pope’s critique struck at a fundamental contradiction in Equatorial Guinea’s economy—a nation whose oil wealth could lift millions from poverty but has instead enriched the ruling Obiang family while more than half of the country’s nearly 2 million people live in poverty, a reality the pontiff used his platform to highlight.
Pope challenges Trump’s mineral strategy in Equatorial Guinea visit
Pope Leo XIV arrived in Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday and immediately condemned the extraction of Africa’s mineral wealth, directly challenging the Trump administration’s strategy to secure the continent’s critical minerals as strategic leverage against China.
“Such an economy kills,” the Pope said in remarks to government officials in Malabo, the administrative capital. “The proliferation of armed conflicts is often driven by the colonization of oil and mineral deposits, occurring with no regard for international law or the self-determination of peoples.”
The Pope’s visit marks the first papal presence in Equatorial Guinea since Pope John Paul II came in 1982. For more than four decades, the country’s Catholic population—about 75% of the nation—had awaited another pontiff’s arrival. Adoring crowds lined the road from the airport to Malabo, waving flags and cheering.
A nation transformed by oil, hobbled by poverty
Equatorial Guinea discovered oil offshore in the mid-1990s, transforming its economy virtually overnight. Oil now accounts for almost half the country’s gross domestic product and more than 90% of its exports, according to the African Development Bank.
Yet more than half of the nation’s nearly 2 million people live in poverty. The contradiction sits at the heart of the Pope’s critique.
Human Rights Watch and court cases in France and Spain have documented how these vast oil revenues enriched the country’s ruling Obiang family rather than the broader population. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has presided over the country since 1979—making him Africa’s longest-serving president—and has been accused of widespread corruption and authoritarianism.
The Pope met with Obiang at the presidential palace but did not publicly address those accusations directly.
Augustine and the City of God
Instead, Leo drew on philosophical and theological language rooted in the 5th-century work of St. Augustine, “City of God.” Augustine contrasted an earthly city built on pride and the pursuit of power with an eternal city founded on God’s love.
“The earthly city is centered upon the proud love of self, on the lust for power and worldly glory that leads to destruction,” the Pope said. “It is essential to discern the difference between that which lasts and that which passes, remaining free from the pursuit of unjust wealth and the illusion of dominion.”
The government has been constructing a new capital city named Ciudad de la Paz, or City of Peace, on the mainland, though the transfer of government buildings remains incomplete. Critics have warned the relocation would exacerbate inequalities and give the presidential circle further opportunities to enrich themselves.
U.S. mineral strategy and the Pope’s implicit critique
The Pope’s language about “colonization” and “lust for power” echoed a broader conflict with the Trump administration over Africa’s mineral resources. The administration has announced plans for a minerals trading bloc with its allies and is racing to secure access to Africa’s critical mineral regions—rare earth elements, cobalt, lithium—to compete with China’s long-standing dominance in the region.
Last year, as the Trump administration helped broker a Congo peace deal, it simultaneously signed a partnership giving American companies access to Congo’s conflict minerals. The U.S. is also investing heavily in the Lobito Corridor, a rail infrastructure project facilitating mineral exports from Zambia and Congo through Angola.
The Pope’s insistence that mineral extraction occur “with no regard for international law or the self-determination of peoples” stands in direct tension with U.S. strategy, which prioritizes securing African minerals for American economic and geopolitical ends.
The church in a precarious position
Equatorial Guinea’s Catholic Church occupies a delicate position. Church leaders operate in close coordination with the government, a relationship that Tutu Alicante, a U.S.-based activist with the EG Justice rights group, attributes partly to fear and partly to financial benefit.
The Rev. Fortunatus Nwachukwu, a senior Vatican official, articulated the church’s difficult balance: “Should the church go to war against the government? Surely no. Should the church swallow everything as if it were normal? No. The church has to continue preaching justice, always in defense of life, human dignity and the common good.”
Deportations and a prison visit
The Pope’s Africa journey has also highlighted the human cost of the Trump administration’s migration deportation policy. Equatorial Guinea has received millions of dollars from the Trump administration to accept migrants deported from the United States—migrants who have no ties to the country.
At least 29 such migrants have been deported to Equatorial Guinea. Some remain in detention in Malabo under restrictions on legal and medical support. Others have been forcibly returned to their home countries, where they face persecution.
The Pope has been outspoken in his criticism of the administration’s overall migration policy, calling it “extremely disrespectful.”
On Wednesday, Leo is scheduled to visit a prison in the port city of Bata.