Guinea Equatorial: Government denies president died on flight to France

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Guinea Equatorial: Government denies president died on flight to France

9:12 CAT | 08 Jan 2023

Image: Lusa

The government of Equatorial Guinea has denied allegations circulating on social media about the death of President Teodoro Obiang, saying that “he is alive,” according to a statement released on Sunday by the local press.

The official statement, issued on Saturday by the director-general of the presidential press, Luis Ndong Owono, said that Obiang “is in perfect health” and that he had held “his usual working session with his cabinet” that morning.

“Reports circulating on social media claim that the head of state had taken off yesterday (Friday) on a chartered flight to France to undergo urgent medical treatment and died hours before the plane landed at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris,” Owono said.

However, he stressed, the Guinean head of state travelled on Saturday to Riaba, just over 40 kilometres from the capital, Malabo, on a working visit with former Sao Tome and Principe President Miguel Trovoada.

“The national media appeal to the population not to pay attention to this information that tends to damage the state of peace and stability in the Republic of Equatorial Guinea,” the statement emphasised, without specifying on which social networks the allegation of the resident’s death had been spread.

“We reiterate that the President of Equatorial Guinea, the man trusted by the people of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea in the last elections of 20 November, is alive,” it insisted.

“Proof of this – he added – we will see him on Monday, 9 January 2023, at the meeting he will hold with the Executive Council of the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea at the headquarters of the National Office in Malabo.”

On his account on Twitter, the country’s Vice President and son of the President, Teodoro Nguema Obiang, better known as Teodorín, said today that “from now on, people who use social media to spread false information, especially the kind they have just done about the head of state, will be tracked down and held judicially accountable in the country.”

“I call for the good use of social media and to avoid rumours,” Nguema Obiang, considered a possible successor to his father as the head of state, also wrote.

The vice president announced that on the 17th, he would meet with sectors of “Defence and Security, telephone operators and the State Attorney General’s Office, to analyse the situation of social networks” and “decide if the country should continue to use WhatsApp after the abusive use that is being made”.

Obiang, 80, had ruled the country dictatorially since 1979 when he overthrew his uncle Francisco Macías in a coup. He is currently the world’s longest-serving head of state in office apart from monarchies.

According to official results, the president was re-elected on 20 November for a sixth seven-year term with 94.9% of the vote, which the opposition has questioned after denouncing voting irregularities.

Since independence from Spain in 1968, Equatorial Guinea has been considered by human rights organisations one of the most corrupt and repressive countries in the world due to reports of imprisonment, torture of dissidents and repeated electoral fraud.

Source: Lusa