Tag Archives: Guinea

World

Guinea military consolidates takeover, opposition leader signals openness to transition

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CONAKRY, Sept 7 (Reuters) – Guinea’s main opposition leader said on Tuesday he was open to participating in a transition following a military coup over the weekend, as the soldiers who seized power consolidated their takeover.

West African countries have threatened sanctions following the overthrow of President Alpha Conde, who was serving a third term after altering the constitution to permit it.

His opponents said the change was illegal and frustration boiled over into deadly protests last year. Eighty political prisoners detained by Conde’s government, including a number who had campaigned against his third term, were released on Tuesday evening, said Hamidou Barry of the Guinean Organisation of Human Rights.

Regional leaders will meet to discuss Guinea on Wednesday – not Thursday, as suggested in a previous staff memo.

Coup leader Mamady Doumbouya, a former officer in the French Foreign Legion, has promised a transitional government of national unity and a “new era for governance and economic development”. But he has not yet explained exactly what this will entail, or given a timeframe.

Guinea’s main opposition leader, Cellou Dalein Diallo, told Reuters on Tuesday he had not yet been consulted about the transition but was ready to participate.

“We would send representatives, why not, to participate in the process to bring the country back to constitutional order,” said Diallo, a former prime minister who finished runner-up to Conde in three successive elections, most recently last October.

Sunday’s uprising, in which Conde and other top politicians were detained or barred from travelling, is the third since April in West and Central Africa, raising concerns about a slide back to military rule in a region that had made strides towards multi-party democracy since the 1990s.

Conakry was calm for a second day after the putsch, with some military checkpoints removed. Traffic was normal on Tuesday in the capital’s administrative centre, the Kaloum peninsula.

Special forces members take position during an uprising that led to the toppling of president Alpha Conde in Kaloum neighbourhood of Conakry, Guinea September 5, 2021. REUTERS/Saliou Samb/File Photo

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Moving to consolidate their power, the soldiers that led the coup have installed army officers at the top of Guinea’s eight regions and various administrative districts.

BAUXITE

The coup raised concerns about supplies of bauxite, the main aluminium ore, from Guinea, a leading producer.

The benchmark aluminium contract on the London Metal Exchange remained near a 10-year high on Monday.

However, mines have not reported any disruption. State-run Chinese aluminium producer Chalco’s (601600.SS), bauxite project in Guinea said it was operating normally.

The Australian-listed bauxite and gold exploration firms Lindian Resources (LIN.AX) and Polymetals Resources (POL.AX) also said on Tuesday that their activities were unaffected.

The Kremlin said it was closely following the political situation and that it hoped Russian business interests, which include three major bauxite mines and one alumina refinery, would not suffer.

During his decade in power, Conde steered Guinea through economic growth, but unemployment remained high.

Surveys by Afrobarometer suggest the majority of Guineans think the level of corruption has increased, while dissatisfaction with the economy and personal living conditions has also risen.

Diallo said corruption became endemic under Conde.

“An elite that enriched themselves in an insolent way, while poverty was rising and the country’s infrastructure was crumbling. There was also a general malaise in the country,” he said.

Additional reporting by Hereward Holland and Bate Felix
Editing by Kevin Liffey and Grant McCool

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Health

Ivory Coast records first case of Ebola in 25 years | Ebola News

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Health minister says an 18-year-old female who travelled to Abidjan from neighbouring Guinea has tested positive for Ebola.

Ivory Coast has recorded its first case of the Ebola hemorrhagic virus in 25 years, according to the country’s health minister.

On Saturday, Pierre N’Gou Dimba said on national television that officials confirmed the case after testing samples from an 18-year-old female who travelled from neighbouring Guinea.

“This is an isolated and imported case,” he said, adding that the patient was currently being treated in intensive care in Abidjan, the commercial capital.

In a separate statement, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the case was Ivory Coast’s first Ebola infection since 1994.

“This came after the Institut Pasteur in Ivory Coast confirmed the Ebola Virus Disease in samples collected from a patient, who was hospitalized in the commercial capital of Abidjan, after arriving from Guinea,” the WHO said in the statement.

The WHO said initial investigations found the patient had travelled to Ivory Coast by road and arrived in Abidjan on August 12.

“The patient was admitted to a hospital after experiencing a fever and is currently receiving treatment,” it said.

Guinea – site of the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak, the deadliest on record – experienced a four-month Ebola outbreak earlier this year that was declared over on June 19.

Guinea early this week also confirmed a first case of the Marburg virus in West Africa. Marburg virus disease is a highly infectious haemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola.

Transmission of both diseases occurs through contact with infected bodily fluids and tissue, while symptoms include headache, vomiting blood, muscle pains and bleeding.

The WHO said there was no indication the current case in Ivory Coast is linked to the outbreak in Guinea earlier this year. It said further investigation and genomic sequencing will identify the strain and determine if there was a connection.

“It is of immense concern that this outbreak has been declared in Abidjan, a metropolis of more than 4 million people,” Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, said in the statement.

“However, much of the world’s expertise in tackling Ebola is here on the continent and Ivory Coast can tap into this experience and bring the response to full speed,” she said.

The WHO said it was helping to coordinate a cross-border response, which included transferring 5,000 doses of the Ebola vaccine from Guinea to Ivory Coast.



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Health

Marburg virus disease: Guinea confirms West Africa’s first case of rare, Ebola-like disease

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Samples of the virus, which causes hemorrhagic fever, were taken from the patient in Gueckedou. The statement added that the detection comes less than two months after Guinea declared an end to its most recent Ebola outbreak.

“Gueckedou, where Marburg has been confirmed, is also the same region where cases of the 2021 Ebola outbreak in Guinea as well as the 2014–2016 West Africa outbreak were initially detected,” according to the WHO statement. “Samples taken from a now-deceased patient and tested by a field laboratory in Gueckedou as well as Guinea’s national haemorrhagic fever laboratory turned out positive for the Marburg virus. Further analysis by the Institut Pasteur in Senegal confirmed the result.”

Health authorities on Monday were attempting to find people who may have had contact with the patient as well as launching a public education campaign to help curb the spread of infection.

An initial team of 10 WHO experts are on the ground to probe the case and support Guinea’s emergency response.

“We applaud the alertness and the quick investigative action by Guinea’s health workers. The potential for the Marburg virus to spread far and wide means we need to stop it in its tracks,” Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said in the statement.

According to WHO, the virus is transmitted to humans from fruit bats and can then be spread human-to-human through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people or surfaces and materials contaminated with these fluids. There are no vaccines or antiviral treatments to treat Marburg; however, there are treatments for specific symptoms that can improve patients’ chances for survival.

“Case fatality rates have varied from 24% to 88% in past outbreaks depending on virus strain and case management,” the statement said. “In Africa, previous outbreaks and sporadic cases have been reported in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda.”

Marburg virus was first identified in 1967, when 31 people became sick in Germany and Yugoslavia in an outbreak that was eventually traced back to laboratory monkeys imported from Uganda. Since then the virus has appeared sporadically, with just a dozen outbreaks on record. Many of those involved only one diagnosed case.

Marburg virus causes symptoms similar to Ebola, beginning with fever and weakness and often leading to internal or external bleeding, organ failure and death.

Samson Ntale contributed to this report.

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World

Equatorial Guinea to close embassy in London

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Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo attends the plenary session of the Paris Peace Forum, France November 12, 2019. Ludovic Marin/Pool via REUTERS

DAKAR, July 26 (Reuters) – Equatorial Guinea will close its diplomatic mission in London, the country’s foreign minister said on Monday, after Britain last week sanctioned the son of its president for misappropriating millions of dollars.

“The first decision that the Malabo executive has taken is the total closure of our diplomatic headquarters in London,” Foreign Minister Simeon Oyono Esono said on state television.

“Equatorial Guinea will not accept interference in the internal affairs of the country, which violates the principle of international law,” Esono said.

Britain sanctioned Teodoro Obiang Mangue, who is also the vice president of the tiny Gulf of Guinea nation, for misappropriating millions of dollars which London said were spent on luxury mansions, private jets and a $275,000 glove worn by Michael Jackson. read more

Equatorial Guinea’s foreign ministry said on Friday that the sanctions against Mangue were imposed illegally and he had never made any investments in Britain or been charged to court there.

“The unfounded sanctions imposed by the British Government are justified by the manipulations, lies and malevolent initiatives promoted by certain non-governmental organisations against the good image of Equatorial Guinea,” the statement said.

Britain said last week it was imposing an asset freeze and travel ban on Mangue to ensure he will no longer be able to channel money through UK banks or enter the country.

Mangue’s father, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, has ruled Equatorial Guinea since seizing power in a coup in 1979, 11 years after independence from Spain.

Exploitation of the country’s oil reserves over the past few decades has greatly increased the size of its economy. More than 76% of the population, however, continue to live in poverty, according to World Bank figures.

Reporting by Bate Felix
Writing by Cooper Inveen
Editing by Giles Elgood

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Papua New Guinea coronavirus cases spike, health system on the brink

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Australian officials carry boxes containing some 8,000 initial doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine following their arrival on board a Royal Australian Air Force plane at the Port Moresby international airport on March 23, 2021, as Papua New Guinea raced to quell a Covid-19 surge overwhelming its fragile health system.

Andrew Kutan | AFP | Getty Images

The coronavirus crisis that has gripped Papua New Guinea continues to worsen, as the Indo-Pacific nation waits in earnest for vaccines to arrive.

In just one week — between March 22 and March 28 — there were 1,786 new reported cases of Covid-19 and 13 deaths, according to the latest report from the World Health Organization and the PNG National Department of Health.

The weekly joint report said that as of March 28, noon local time, the island-nation reported 5,349 total cases and 49 deaths. It was the eighth consecutive week of increases.

Papua New Guinea is a heavily forested nation of fewer than 9 million people that lies about 100 miles (160 km) north of Australia at their closest point.

Prime Minister James Marape acknowledged last week there is “rampant community transmission.”

Health system at ‘risk of collapsing’

The situation on the ground in PNG is said to be dire and international organizations such as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) have warned of an imminent collapse of the country’s overwhelmed health-care system.

“The health system in PNG is at risk of collapsing, as health facilities managing COVID-19 are close to capacity and almost too stretched to provide regular basic healthcare,” MSF said.

The Pacific island state has only about 500 doctors, less than 4,000 nurses, and below 3,000 community health workers, according to data the prime minister shared last year during an address to parliament. There are just about 5,000 bed spaces in hospitals, he added.

MSF, which provides medical humanitarian assistance to countries in crisis, said that an increasing number of health-care staff in PNG tested positive for Covid-19, forcing them to quarantine at home. Health facilities managing the outbreak are close to full capacity, resulting in longer waiting times.

PNG also has relatively poor health indicators, according to Kate Schuetze, Pacific researcher at Amnesty International.

Additional personal protective equipment, testing capacity and human resources need to be considered fast to provide assistance to the already strained healthcare system.

Ghulam Nabi

interim head of mission for Papua New Guinea at MSF

“We’ve got already a poor health-care system and then you’ve also got high levels of comorbidities that are also going to impact with the Covid-19 crisis,” Schuetze told CNBC on Wednesday. “So, you have malaria in the country, you have multi-drug resistant tuberculosis as well as a range of other illnesses that could compound the impact of Covid-19.”

A large number of people also live in rural or remote communities where it’s hard to access the same level of health care as those living in urban centers such as Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, she added.

Shortage of equipment

According to the joint report from WHO and the health department, only 7,061 Covid tests were conducted between March 22 and March 28 — that means 25.29% of those tests returned positive.

Large-scale testing remains low across most of the country and there’s a shortage of tests kits as well as logistical difficulties, the report noted. That suggests the actual number of infections across the country may be significantly higher than what is being formally reported.

As isolation wards filled up in hospitals, PNG turned a sports complex into a temporary field hospital for Covid-19 patients.

MSF said on Friday that it is supporting local health services by providing staff and cartridges to analyze samples of polymerase chain reaction tests that are widely used to detect the coronavirus. Almost 40% of the people getting tested at one of the health facilities have Covid-19, according to MSF. The organization expects more cases in the coming weeks.

MSF also said it only has enough testing cartridges to last up to two weeks.

“Additional personal protective equipment, testing capacity and human resources need to be considered fast to provide assistance to the already strained healthcare system,” said Ghulam Nabi, interim head of mission for Papua New Guinea at MSF, in a statement.

He added that MSF is calling on organizations in the region to act and mobilize quickly to increase their support to the Pacific nation.

Access to vaccines and tackling misinformation

PNG this week rolled out its vaccination drive using the 8,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 shots that Australia donated.

The country’s prime minister Marape received his first dose on Tuesday, according to reports.

Rising vaccine nationalism around the world is making it more difficult for small, developing nations such as PNG to access shots to inoculate their population.

Many of them rely on a global vaccination initiative called Covax, which aims to ensure equitable distribution of shots in less wealthy countries. It is co-led by WHO, Gavi — the Vaccine Alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

Amnesty’s Schuetze said one of the challenges with the Covax facility is that not enough countries are donating sufficient money and resources, or supplying enough vaccines, to ensure a more equitable distribution.

PNG is due to receive around 588,000 doses of vaccine from Covax by June.

Australia, for its part, has reportedly asked the European Union to release 1 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine to PNG. It was initially contracted to go to Australia. Reuters reported last week that the EU has yet to respond to that request.

Canberra has also reportedly asked the U.S., Japan and India — the other members of the informal Quad alliance — to help PNG.

Meanwhile, vaccine skepticism and the spread of misinformation is making matters more complicated in the island-nation. Opposition leader Belden Namah reportedly asked the government to suspend the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine, alleging it was exposing citizens to potential serious harm.

The PNG government needs to do more to educate and inform the public about vaccines and health-care treatment on Covid-19, Amnesty’s Schuetze said.

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World

‘This is what we feared’: how a country that avoided the worst of Covid finally got hit | Papua New Guinea

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When Papua New Guinea recorded its first Covid case in March 2020, the country held its breath.

There were acute fears about the impact of Covid on the country’s already overwhelmed and under-resourced health system, which has roughly 500 doctors to serve a population of around nine million, and was already struggling to deal with outbreaks of measles, drug-resistant tuberculosis and polio.

But for a long time, the Covid crisis did not take hold in PNG.

Now, a year later, as vaccines allow many countries to hope for the end of the pandemic, the catastrophe experts predicted has finally arrived in Papua New Guinea.

“This is what we all feared last year when the pandemic started,” sayid Dr William Pomat, director of the Papua New Medical Research Institute.

In the last month, the number of confirmed cases in Papua New Guinea has skyrocketed, increasing from fewer than 900 cases and nine deaths at the beginning of February, to more than 3,000 confirmed cases and 36 deaths in mid-March.

“We are seeing more people getting very sick from Covid-19 this year compared to previous waves,” Matt Cannon, St John’s Commissioner.

Authorities fear that the scale of the outbreak has been masked by low testing rates – with just 55,000 tests conducted in the entire country throughout the pandemic – and that the true number of infections might be many times higher.

St John’s Ambulance conduct drive-through Covid testing at the Taurama Aquatic Centre in Port Morseby. Photograph: Kalolaine Fainu/The Guardian

‘Fragile health system’

Writing in the Guardian earlier this week, Glen Mola, head of obstetrics and gynaecology at Port Moresby General Hospital, in the country’s capital, warned that 30% of the staff at the maternity ward had tested positive to Covid and voiced his fears that they would not be able to keep the hospital’s doors open and women “may end up dying in the hospital car park”.

“We have a very fragile health system and the stress is already being felt. We may very soon collapse if we are not careful … It is a ticking timebomb,” said Dr Sam Yockopua, director of emergency medicine in Port Moresby.

Stigma around the virus is still rife in the Pacific country and many refuse to go for testing even when showing symptoms. Masks are only worn to enter buildings, but outside in the bustling city people still walk around without masks as conspiracy theories and claims of immunity grow.

Out in the public market in Port Moresby, people complain about having to wear masks, saying that Covid-19 cannot harm Papua New Guineans because of their skin tone, a myth that emerged early in the pandemic as an explanation for PNG’s low infection rates.

St John’s Ambulance has set up drive through covid testing in Port Morseby. Photograph: Kalolaine Fainu/The Guardian

‘Covid-19 won’t affect us’

As Julie Osafa, 53, boards an overcrowded bus from Port Moresby to Boroko, she dismissed fears about the spread of Covid-19.

“PNG we are a Christian country, Covid-19 won’t affect us. They’re just lying to us,” she said.

Her friend Anna John, 46, added that the Covid-19 vaccine was the end of times and the vaccination would mark Papua New Guineans with the sign of the devil.

“They made Covid-19 so they can vaccinate us and put the mark of the beast, Satan, on us,” she said.

Even the family of an 86-year-old man suspected to have died from Covid-19 has called the virus a “government conspiracy”.

Australia has scrambled to provide its nearest neighbour with aid, promising to deliver 8,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and asking the European Union to divert one million doses of the vaccine bound for Australia to PNG instead. But many in Papua New Guinea still do not want to be vaccinated and are against the “national isolation” lockdown that will begin next week. Schools will close and travel will be banned.

Such beliefs and conspiracy theories have prompted the country’s prime minister, James Marape, and other members of parliament to come forward saying that they will be the first ones to be vaccinated, offering earlier this week to be the “guinea pig” for the vaccine.

“For those who think Covid-19 is a joke, or are playing around; this is a global established pandemic,’’ he warned.

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World

Papua New Guinea forced to wait for vaccines as coronavirus crisis spirals out of control | World news

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Papua New Guinea will not get its first Covid-19 vaccines until next month at the earliest, despite an uncontrolled coronavirus outbreak spiralling across the country, hospitals shutting their doors to patients, and an already vulnerable healthcare system on the verge of collapse.

At Port Moresby’s general hospital, 40% of the mothers in the labour ward tested for Covid-19 returned positive results, but could not be separated from other mothers because there is no isolation labour ward for them.

And the crisis could worsen further still: the burial ceremony of PNG’s first prime minister, and its grand chief, Sir Michael Somare, is expected to attract tens of thousands to the northern coastal city of Wewak later this week, an occasion that could serve as a super-spreader event, in turn seeding the virus all over the archipelago.

By global standards, the number of confirmed cases in PNG is low: 1,670. But fewer than 50,000 tests have been carried out across PNG – population nearly 9 million – for the entire pandemic, and the actual rate of infection is factors higher.

In many places outside of the capital Port Moresby, there is no testing at all. PNG government sources say the actual case rate could be 10 times the official figure.

Late Tuesday, the government announced it had sourced 200,000 AstraZeneca doses from Australia, and 70,000 from India.

“We are now in the process of getting the vaccine across, hopefully by April,” the prime minister, James Marape, said.

“Health workers will be vaccinated first as we are seeing a growing number of health workers who are getting infected in the line of their work.”

Papua New Guinea prime minister James Marape Photograph: Dave Rowland/Getty Images

The government is fighting not only burgeoning infections, but entrenched resistance to vaccinations, with conspiracy theories abundant through WhatsApp groups and social media, and intransigent widespread beliefs such as that “Melanesians are immune to coronavirus”.

Crowded Port Moresby has been the epicentre of PNG’s outbreak, but there are concerns too with growing case numbers in Western Province, which shares a porous border with West Papua, where infection rates are amongst the highest in Melanesia.

The governor of Oro province, Gary Juffa, recently recovered from Covid-19 himself, said the number of infections across PNG was far higher than official figures because many people were not being tested despite showing symptoms. He said “years of neglect” and corruption inside PNG’s healthcare system was “now uncovering a grim reality”.

“I believe that the situation is fast becoming serious and Papua New Guinea’s health system is under serious constraints.”

Prof Glen Mola, head of Port Moresby General’s obstetrics and gynaecology ward, told the Guardian vaccines were needed urgently.

“We have Covid-19 cases everywhere, about 40% of the mothers brought in to the labour ward [and tested for coronavirus]… tested Covid-19 positive,” he said. “But we can’t isolate them because there is no isolation labour ward.

“We are trying our best to help these mothers but they are bringing in Covid-19 from their communities and infecting health workers.”

The hospital – PNG’s largest – has been forced to close entire sections of the hospital after 40 staff members tested positive. The hospital is also running short of gloves and other personal protective equipment.

Other hospitals around the country – including Mount Hagen – have also shut their doors because of swingeing budget cuts. Some hospitals have received only one-third of the money needed to remain open, and have been forced to shut down services, just as Covid cases surge.

St John Ambulance commissioner Matt Cannon said that, without intervention, PNG faced an uncontrollable outbreak.

“We are not at the tipping point now – the tipping point was three weeks ago,” he said. “We are anticipating hundreds more cases, and potentially this will increase to thousands. We are at alert level. There are big alarms going off. Health workers are being affected.”

“We are now not working towards elimination; we are now at the stage that we can only try to slow the spread and protect as many lives as possible.”

Allan Bird, governor of East Sepik province, said the delay in rolling out a vaccine to Papua New Guineans would cost lives across the country.

“PNG did not order or pay for any vaccines in 2020, so we are not entitled to any vaccines,” he said. “The only vaccines available to us are donated by friendly governments. There is already a long waiting list for vaccines.”

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Equatorial Guinea explosions death toll rises to 98, health ministry says

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Nearly 100 people have been confirmed dead after the blasts at a military base in the Central African country over the weekend, the country’s health ministry said Tuesday.

The blasts in the port city of Bata on Sunday killed 98 people and injured another 615, according to the government’s latest count.

More than 60 people have been pulled out from rubble at the site of the explosion by the fire service and other agencies, authorities said.

Around half of those wounded have been discharged from hospital while the rest are still being treated.

Resident Carmen Alebeso told CNN she was in her car when the first blast happened at around 2 p.m. local time on Sunday.

“It was a very big noise and everyone got out of their cars and we were all in shock. We saw the typical image of an atomic bomb in front of us. It was a confusing and desperate situation, people were shouting and crying,” she said.

All the buildings in the area were completely destroyed, and bodies were still being pulled out of rubble in the area Monday, she added.

Alebeso added that medical aid was not getting to those who needed it the most.

“We have three main hospitals and they were all collapsed. So many people injured, it was awful. People were crying trying to get in to get some treatment. It was a terrifying situation,” she said.

“We ask for the contribution of blood donors,” the health ministry said Monday on Twitter, calling on volunteer health personnel to go to Bata Regional Hospital.

President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo faulted the military for mishandling dynamite and other explosive devices kept in its care, which he said had led to the blasts after individuals suspected to be farmers set up a fire in a field bordering the military base.

“Bata was the location of an accident caused by the negligence and carelessness of a unit charged with the care and protection of the stores of dynamite and explosives next to the ammunition at the Nkoantoma Military Base, which caught fire from the burning of nearby land by neighbors, causing an explosion in the dynamite and explosives store and subsequently the ammunition,” the president said in a statement Sunday.

Tutu Alicante, a US-based human rights lawyer from Equatorial Guinea, told CNN the government must answer questions about why deadly explosives were kept in the military camp.

“In other countries, these things are kept in remote places such as deserts. Why is dynamite being kept in the middle of the largest city in the country and in the barracks where the army and their family live? We need a proper investigation into what has happened,” he said.

President Mbasogo, 78, appealed for calm and said he was calling for an emergency meeting to assess the situation and get help to those who need it.

The first batch of humanitarian aid arrived in the country from Spain Tuesday, which has sent antibiotics, drugs and other essentials to treat those wounded in the explosion.

It said health workers and the fire brigade were providing care to victims and transferring those with serious injuries to hospitals.

Mbasogo appealed to the international community to assist his country in the repair of public and private infrastructure damaged in the blast — which he said “will involve significant economic resources.”

The incident occurred as Equatorial Guinea reels from the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Equatorial Guinea is one of Africa’s smallest countries, with just over 850,000 residents. Bata is one of the country’s two cities with populations of more than 30,000, the other being the island-based capital Malabo.

Mbasogo, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, has ruled the tiny central African nation for 42 years. His son Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue is the Vice President and is known for his extravagance.

A collection of ultra-expensive supercars worth $13 million were seized from him in 2019 and auctioned in Switzerland after an investigation into money laundering.

Before that, Obiang agreed to a $30 million settlement to resolve the US government’s allegations that he used money plundered from his country to amass assets such as a California mansion, a jet and a sizable collection of Michael Jackson memorabilia — including the crystal-encrusted white glove from Jackson’s “Bad” world tour.



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Equatorial Guinea explosions kill at least 31, injure hundreds more in Bata

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More than 400 were injured and many missing under the rubble, the ministry had said after the huge blasts on Sunday.

Resident Carmen Alebeso said the scenes resembled the detonation of an atomic bomb. Alebeso told CNN she was in her car when the first blast happened at around 2 p.m. local time on Sunday.

“It was a very big noise and everyone got out of their cars and we were all in shock. We saw the typical image of an atomic bomb in front of us. It was a confusing and desperate situation, people were shouting and crying,” she said.

All the buildings in the area were completely destroyed, and bodies were still being pulled out of rubble in the area Monday, she added.

Alebeso added that medical aid was not getting to those who needed it the most.

“We have three main hospitals and they were all collapsed. So many people injured, it was awful. People were crying trying to get in to get some treatment. It was a terrifying situation,” she said.

“We ask for the contribution of blood donors,” the health ministry said on Twitter, calling on volunteer health personnel to go to Bata Regional Hospital.

It said health workers and the fire brigade were providing care to victims and transferring those with serious injuries to hospitals.

In a statement read out on local media late Sunday, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo faulted the country’s military for mishandling dynamite and other explosive devices kept in its care — which he said had led to the blasts after individuals suspected to be farmers set up a fire in a field bordering the military base.

“Bata was the location of an accident caused by the negligence and carelessness of a unit charged with the care and protection of the stores of dynamite and explosives next to the ammunition at the Nkoantoma Military Base, which caught fire from the burning of nearby land by neighbors, causing an explosion in the dynamite and explosives store and subsequently the ammunition,” the statement said.

President Mbasogo appealed to the international community to assist his country in the repair of public and private infrastructure damaged in the blast — which he said “will involve significant economic resources.”

The president said the tragic incident came at a time when Equatorial Guinea is still reeling from the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement later Sunday, the Spanish embassy asked its citizens in Equatorial Guinea to “remain at home.”

“Following the explosions that occurred today in the city of Bata, Spanish nationals are recommended to remain at home,” a translated version of the statement posted on the embassy’s official Twitter account said.

The embassy did not provide further details on the stay-at-home advisory. It, however, issued emergency numbers for all Spanish nationals in the country.

Equatorial Guinea is one of Africa’s smallest countries, with just over 850,000 residents. Bata is one of the country’s two cities with populations of more than 30,000, the other being the island-based capital Malabo.



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At least 20 dead, 600 wounded in Equatorial Guinea blasts

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OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — A series of explosions at a military barracks in Equatorial Guinea killed at least 20 people and wounded more than 600 others on Sunday, authorities said.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema said the 4 p.m. explosion was due to the “negligent handling of dynamite” in the military barracks located in the neighborhood of Mondong Nkuantoma in Bata.

“The impact of the explosion caused damage in almost all the houses and buildings in Bata,” the president said in a statement, which was in Spanish.

The defense ministry released a statement late Sunday saying that a fire at a weapons depot in the barracks caused the explosion of high-caliber ammunition. It said the provisional toll was 20 dead and 600 injured, adding that the cause of the explosions will be fully investigated.

The country’s president said the fire may have been due residents burning the fields surrounding the barracks.

State television showed a huge plume of smoke rising above the explosion site as crowds fled, with many people crying out “we don’t know what happened, but it is all destroyed.”

Images on local media seen by The Associated Press showed people screaming and crying running through the streets amid debris and smoke. Roofs of houses were ripped off, and wounded people were being carried into a hospital.

Equatorial Guinea, an African country of 1.3 million people located south of Cameroon, was a colony of Spain until it gained its independence in 1968. Bata has roughly 175,000 inhabitants.

The Health Ministry made a call for blood donors and volunteer health workers to go to the Regional Hospital de Bata, one of three hospitals treating the wounded.

The ministry said its health workers were treating the injured at the site of the tragedy and in medical facilities but feared people were still missing under the rubble.

The blasts were a shock for the oil-rich Central African nation. Foreign Minister Simeón Oyono Esono Angue met with foreign ambassadors and asked for aid.

“It is important for us to ask our brother countries for their assistance in this lamentable situation since we have a health emergency (due to Covid-19) and the tragedy in Bata,” he said.

A doctor calling into TVGE, who went by his first name, Florentino, said the situation was a “moment of crisis” and that the hospitals were overcrowded. He said a sports center set up for Covid-19 patients would be used to receive minor cases.

Radio station, Radio Macuto, tweeted that people were being evacuated within four kilometers of the city because the fumes might be harmful.

Following the blast, the Spanish Embassy in Equatorial Guinea recommended on Twitter that “Spanish nationals stay in their homes.”

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