Under an opaque $7.5 million deal with the Trump administration, Equatorial Guinea’s all-powerful president has turned a hotel owned by his family into a prison for asylum seekers deported from the United States.

Pope Leo XIV is urging Equatorial Guineans to work for freedom, justice and to close the gap “between the privileged and the disadvantaged.”.

Pope Leo XIV has denounced the “colonization” of minerals and the “lust for power” in Equatorial Guinea at the end of his four-nation African trip.

Pope Leo XIV’s trip to Africa is so dizzying in its complexity it recalls some of the early globe-trotting odysseys of St. John Paul II.

Provisional results announced by authorities in the Republic of Congo show that President Denis Sassou N’Guesso has been reelected for a fifth consecutive term.

The top Democratic senator on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says the Trump administration made a $7.5 million payment to the government of Equatorial Guinea amid an effort deport people to the West African country.

The Trump administration is set to allow a West African leader accused of flagrant corruption to travel to the United States for this month’s U.N. General Assembly and cities outside New York that he has previously been barred from visiting.

Cameroon's 92-year-old president, Paul Biya, announces he will seek an eighth term in October's elections.

President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill revoking Russia's ratification of a global nuclear test ban.

Africa's longest-serving president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, is expected to extend his rule in the oil-rich country despite opposition accusations of voting irregularities.

President Paul Biya of Cameroon is marking 40 years in power but staying out of the spotlight as questions swirl around the 89-year-old leader.

This handout satellite photo provided by Maxar Technologies shows a military garrison after an explosion, in Bata, Equatorial Guinea, Tuesday, March 9, 2021. AdThe government held an emergency meeting to see how victims can quickly get aid from Equatorial Guinea before international assistance arrives. Equatorial Guinea, an oil-rich Spanish-speaking West African country of 1.3 million people located south of Cameroon, was a colony of Spain until it gained its independence in 1968. AdThe images show the military base at Bata had been undergoing construction at its southeast corner prior to the explosion. “I am very saddened by the humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Equatorial Guinea following the massive explosion at a military compound,” she said.

FILE - In this UNTV image, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, President of Equatorial Guinea, speaks in a pre-recorded video message during the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020, at UN headquarters. (UNTV via AP)(AP) – A series of explosions at a military barracks in Equatorial Guinea killed at least 20 people and wounded more than 600 others on Sunday, authorities said. Equatorial Guinea, an African country of 1.3 million people located south of Cameroon, was a colony of Spain until it gained its independence in 1968. Earlier, the Health Ministry had tweeted that 17 were killed. Following the blast, the Spanish Embassy in Equatorial Guinea recommended on Twitter that “Spanish nationals stay in their homes."