Despite his adherence to Arian Christianity, at the beginning of his reign Huneric allowed the election of a new Catholic bishop of Carthage and persecuted Manichaean sect. Then he started persecuting Catholics: he punished all Catholic Vandals. Furthermore, he tried to make catholic property fall to the state, but when this gave too much protest from the Byzantine emperor, he chose to banish a number of catholics to a faraway province instead. In February 1 484 he organised a meeting of Catholic bishops with Arian bishops, but on February 24 484 he proclaimed Catholics heretics per June 1 of that year. A number of catholic bishops were banned to Corsica, most others were removed from their office but allowed to stay near their former diocese. A few were martyred.
He also murdered many members of Hasdingii dynasty. Huneric was the first Vandal king who used title of king of Vandals and Alans He was succeeded by his nephew Gunthamund (reigned 484-496), and was little mourned by either the Vandals or their subjects due to his cruelty.
In international politics, Huneric did not have the prestige that his father Geiseric had had. Nevertheless, the Vandals kept their seapower and their hold on the Western Mediterranean islands. But the Moors in the inlands of Algeria, who had been quiet in Geiseric's days, managed to conquer some Vandal outposts in their area, thus severing the connection between the Vandal heartland around Carthage and their westernmost possessions around Tangiers.