The former Spanish colony of Equatorial Guinea announced on Monday it was shutting down its embassy in London following on sanctions imposed by the UK on the son of the president alleging corruption. Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, 53, is also the vice-president of Equatorial Guinea and is responsible for the country's defense and security.
Brazil's jailed ex-president Lula da Silva's legal troubles mounted on Monday as he was accused by the Sao Paulo public prosecutor's office of money laundering in his dealings with Equatorial Guinea.
The tiny West African state of Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday demanded Brazil hand back more than US$ 16m in cash and luxury watches that border officials confiscated from a delegation accompanying the president's son. Foreign Minister Simeon Oyono Esono Angue denounced the seizure as “paltry and unfriendly behavior” and demanded the items be returned, state television TVGE said.
The Beija-Flor samba group was declared the champion of Rio de Janeiro's hotly contested Brazilian Carnival parade competition on Wednesday. However the group stoked controversy by staging a presentation focusing on Equatorial Guinea, run by Africa's longest-ruling dictator, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
Africa’s fifty four countries joined South America “in recognizing the legitimate sovereignty rights of Argentina over the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and the adjoining maritime spaces”, announced the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a communiqué in reference to the so called Declaration of Malabo, capital of Equatorial Guinea.
The London-based anti-corruption campaign group, Global Witness, said it has evidence that Teodorin Obiang, the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry of the tiny West African state of Equatorial Guinea, has plans to order a luxury yacht worth hundreds of millions of dollars from a shipyard in northern Germany.