International Politics

[benji]

What the rest of the world sees as a sex tape scandal could in fact be the latest episode in the real-life drama over who will become Equatorial Guinea’s next president.

Over the past fortnight, dozens of videos - estimates range from 150 to more than 400 - have been leaked of a senior civil servant having sex in his office and elsewhere with different women.

They have flooded social media, shocking and titillating people in the small central African country and beyond.

Many of the women filmed were wives and relatives of people close to the centre of power.

It appears some were aware they were being filmed having sex with Baltasar Ebang Mr Engonga, who is also known as “Bello” because of his good looks.

All this is hard to verify as Equatorial Guinea is a highly restricted society where a free press does not exist.

But one theory is that the leaks were a way to discredit the man at the centre of the storm.

Mr Engonga is a nephew of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema and one of those thought to be hoping to replace him.

Politics in the country is really about palace intrigue and this is where the scandal involving Mr Engonga fits in.

He was the head of the National Financial Investigation Agency, and worked on tackling crimes such as money laundering.

But it turned out he himself was under investigation.

He was arrested on 25 October accused of embezzling a huge sum of money from state coffers and depositing it in secret accounts in the Cayman Islands. He has not commented on the accusation.

Mr Engonga was then taken to the infamous Black Beach prison in the capital, Malabo, where it is alleged that opponents of the government are subjected to brutal treatment.

His phones and computers were seized and a few days later the intimate videos started appearing online.

But in this case, despite the vice-president’s efforts to stop the spread of the clips, they continue to be viewed.

This week, he tried to appear more resolute calling for the installation of CCTV cameras in government offices “to combat indecent and illicit acts”, the official news agency reported.

Saying that the scandal had “denigrated the image of the country” he ordered that any officials found engaging in sex acts at work would be suspended as this was a "flagrant violation of the code of conduct”.

He was not wrong that the story has attracted a lot of outside interest.

Judging by Google's data, search enquiries that include the country’s name have shot up since the beginning of this week.

On Monday, on X, “Equatorial Guinea” was one of the top trending terms in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa - surpassing at times interest in the US election.