Pope Leo wraps up his eventful tour of Africa with a visit to a prison.

The trip has stood out not only for the destinations he visited, but also for his bold remarks, which many have taken as aimed at President Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, the pontiff visited a facility in the city of Bata, where detainees are regularly held for years without access to lawyers, according to Amnesty International.

As he was leaving, prisoners began jumping up and down in the rain, shouting: “Freedom, freedom!”

Equatorial Guinea is widely derided as one of the most repressive countries in the region, run by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo since 1979.

Pope Leo, the first American-born leader of the Catholic Church, is returning to Rome after an ambitious tour spanning four nations and 11 cities in the world’s fastest-growing Catholic region..

He said during the tour that the world is being “ravaged by a handful of tyrants”.

When reporters raised the comments with him, President Trump responded: “I can disagree with the Pope… I have a right to disagree with the Pope.”

Professor Tina Beattie, a theologian and commentator on Catholicism, notes that choosing Africa for one of his first major foreign trips is a meaningful decision.

She told Sky News: “Catholicism in Africa is quite vibrant and growing, so it makes good political sense to go there, even though I wouldn’t reduce his reasons to that.

“But it is a hub of Catholic communities who are often very poor, often immersed in huge conflicts.”

With this he shows a continuation of his predecessor Pope Francis, she added.

Pope Leo traveled to Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea, all known for their large Catholic communities, but began his journey in Algeria, a predominantly Muslim nation.

Speaking in the Algerian capital, Algiers, he said called for “mutual understanding, recognising that we are all one family” in a world “full of conflicts and misunderstandings”.

Prof Beattie added: “It’s been very clear that one of his aims is to promote Christian-Muslim dialogue and understanding.

“I think in a way he is taking on some of the most divisive issues, and it’s hard not to see that underneath this is a resistance to the trend in American politics.”

The pontiff said he was coming to Algeria as a “pilgrim of peace”.

“Blessed are the peacemakers,” he told the faithful in Cameroon. “But woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”

He also said: “The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters.

“The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild.”
While Pope Leo did not name any specific “tyrants”, his comments have been interpreted by many as being directed, at least in part, at Mr Trump.

The pontiff said the “tyrants” speech was written two weeks before President Trump’s remarks about him and that his words weren’t aimed at the U.S. leader.