In Equatorial Guinea, the trial of Baltasar Ebang Engonga begins
On June 30th, 2025, Baltasar Ebang Engonga, the former General Director of the National Agency for Financial Investigation (ANIF) and an influential figure in the regime, appeared before the Malabo court for the opening of his trial. Arrested in September 2024, he is being pursued for embezzlement of public funds, illicit enrichment, and abuse of power. For ten months he has been detained at the Black Beach prison as part of this high-profile case.
En Guinée équatoriale, ouverture du procès de Baltasar Ebang Engonga
The case, brought by the Public Prosecutor’s office, is based on heavy accusations. The senior official, Baltasar Ebang Engonga, is suspected of having used his position at the head of ANIF to transfer public funds to private accounts, while engaging in opaque management of state resources. The prosecutor has demanded up to 18 years in prison for the former director of ANIF and some of his co-defendants, including several women also implicated in this case. His trial takes place in a particularly tense context, five months after the outbreak of a scandal of a completely different nature, that of the massive leak of personal sextapes, showing him in intimate situations with several partners – including relatives of senior officials – sometimes even in official premises.
The viral spread of these videos, in November 2024, had caused a real political earthquake. The authorities had immediately responded by imposing restrictions on the Internet bandwidth to limit the spread of images. They also announced sanctions by the vice-president Teodoro Obiang Mangue against several officials, and the deployment of a surveillance camera program in ministries and courts. Baltasar Ebang Engonga had been fired by presidential decree, as media and institutional pressure intensified.
At the age of 47, nephew of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Baltasar Ebang Engonga belongs to one of the country’s most powerful clans. Despite the severity of the crisis and the widespread suspicion, he is only being tried today for financial corruption. The sexual elements, which so rocked public opinion, do not appear in the indictment. He had been acquitted in 2025 in this private case as the court could not establish the absence of consent.