Equatorial Guinea has held a human rights campaigner in detention for 18 days after he assisted opposition activists when their party headquarters were besieged by police, his lawyer and wife told newsmen on Thursday.
Co-founder of the outlawed rights organisation “Guinea is also ours,” Anacleto Micha Nlang, is said to have been detained on September 25 after leaving the headquarters of the Citizens for Innovation (CI) party.
His wife Montserrat Mikue and attorney Evaristo Nguema Elo revealed that he had supplied food to families, including women and children, who were under siege there.
One of the most segregated and autocratic nations in the world is the tiny, Spanish-speaking nation in central Africa. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the president with the longest tenure in history, has been in charge since 1979.
Equatorial Guinea was ranked 164th out of 180 nations in Reporters Without Borders’ 2021 press freedom rating.
Authorities have increased arrests recently since elections for the presidency, legislature, and local offices are little over a month away.
The crackdown has been defended by state media as an effort to thwart an opposition plot that was “foiled” to target embassies, gas stations, and the homes of ministers.
Security officers raided Gabriel Nse Obiang Obono’s residence, which had been used as the party’s office since 2018, on September 30 following a siege that lasted more than a week.
According to authorities, the attack resulted in the deaths of four protesters and one police officer. Among the 200 persons who had camped out there, including Obono, dozens of people were hurt and more than 150 were taken into custody.
In order to arrest the CI chief who refused to comply with a court order as part of the investigation into the suspected conspiracy, the authorities claimed they stormed the premises.
Nlang was imprisoned in Malabo’s central police station before being sent to the city’s Black Beach prison on October 11, according to his attorney and the civil rights organisation.
“He has been transferred to the world’s worst prison, Black Beach,” the group said in a statement, alleging a “policy of terror.”