Equatorial Guinea rocked by leaked tapes of top official

In recent weeks, approximately 400 videos featuring Baltasar Ebang Engonga, a high-ranking government official, have leaked onto social media in Equatorial Guinea. These recordings show Engonga in intimate situations with various women, often wives or partners of other prominent officials.

Engonga, the nephew of the current president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, was one of the potential successors to the world's longest-serving president.

Obiang assumed the presidency of Equatorial Guinea following a coup in 1979. His administration has been sharply criticized for allegations of human rights abuses, including the use of torture against prisoners. The BBC notes that despite regular elections, there is no genuine opposition in the country as activists are imprisoned or remain in exile, and those intending to assume the security services closely monitor high-ranking positions.

According to the BBC, the recordings leaked after security forces searched Engonga's home and detained him in connection with another case where he was charged with corruption. Engonga was arrested on October 25 for embezzling a substantial sum of money from the state treasury and depositing it in secret accounts in the Cayman Islands. His phones and computers were confiscated. A few days later, intimate videos featuring him started appearing online.

"As the computer equipment was in the hands of the security forces, suspicion has fallen on someone there, who, perhaps, sought to trash Mr Engonga’s reputation ahead of a trial (concerning the corruption charges)," reports the BBC.

Activists suggest that the scandal is part of a broader power struggle. Nsang Christia Esimi Cruz, an Equatorial Guinean activist living in London, told the BBC: "What we are seeing is the end of an era, the end of the current president, and there is a succession [question] and this is the internal fighting we are seeing."

According to the BBC, the first vice president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mangue, the current president's son, is among those suspected of being behind the recordings leak.

"The vice-president, along with his mother, are suspected to be pushing aside anyone who threatens his path to the presidency, including Gabriel Obiang Lima (another son of President Obiang from a different wife), who was oil minister for 10 years and then moved to a secondary government role," reads the BBC report.