Background

The country continued to experience economic difficulties primarily due to its dependence on oil export earnings – accounting for 46% of GDP and 80% of revenues – which continued to decline. According to a report by the World Bank published in July, an estimated 57% of the population were living below the poverty line in 2024, due in part to inflationary pressures including a 4.1% increase in food prices.

The 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International in February 2025 ranked Equatorial Guinea 173rd out of 180 countries. Several court proceedings concerning allegations of corruption, which implicated members of the government, including sons of President Teodoro Obiang, were ongoing throughout 2025. In February, military and governmental sources confirmed some 200 Russian instructors had been deployed to take charge of the protection of the president – in power since 1979 – and members of his family.

Human rights defenders

On 6 January, five months after being suspended from his practice, human rights lawyer Ángel Obama Obiang Eseng received notice that the national Bar Association had lifted his suspension. On 21 July, a two-year suspension imposed in July 2024 on human rights lawyer Gemma Jones was revoked, allowing her to resume her work.

The fate of detained human rights defender Joaquín Elo Ayeto remained unknown at the end of the year. He had been arrested on 1 August 2024, accused of illegal activities as a member of the civil society platform, Somos+, which the authorities claimed was not legally registered. Neither his family nor his lawyer had heard news of him since his transfer from Black Beach prison in Malabo to Oveng Azem prison, Mongomo, on 13 August 2024.

Torture and other ill-treatment

In September, the Spanish Supreme Court rejected a petition from the Spanish National High Court, which had requested that the investigation of the alleged abduction case of opposition activist Julio Obama Mefuman and his colleagues be transferred to the Equatorial Guinean justice system. Julio Obama, a dual Spanish and Equatorial Guinean citizen residing in Spain, and three fellow activists from the opposition group “Movement for the Liberation of Equatorial Guinea Third Republic’’ (known as MLGE3R) were allegedly abducted in South Sudan in 2019 and detained in Equatorial Guinea. Julio Obama died in custody in 2023 in the Oveng Azem prison, having accused Equatorial Guinean authorities of torturing him multiple times.

The Spanish Supreme Court cited “total lack of cooperation” by the Equatorial Guinean authorities, which had refused to repatriate Julio Obama’s body to Spain despite requests to do so by the Spanish National High Court and the European Parliament. Carmelo Ovono Obiang, son of President Obiang, and two other high-ranking members of the Equatorial Guinean government remained under investigation.

Arbitrary detention

On 4 June, the president issued a decree granting presidential pardon to 476 prisoners. These included two South African citizens detained in February 2023 on drug trafficking charges, as well as 37 protesters from the Equatorial Guinean island of Annobón detained in July 2024. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention had determined in both cases that these prisoners were being arbitrarily detained.

The 2024 protests on Annobón – situated some 500km from the mainland – arose from damage residents believed had been caused to their houses, farmlands and island ecosystem by constant dynamite explosions linked to mining operations.

On 9 October, the European Parliament adopted an emergency resolution to condemn the arbitrary detention of two Spanish citizens, Javier Marañón Montero and David Rodríguez Ballesta, in Equatorial Guinea. The two men had been hired by a Spanish tech businessman to install a digital terrestrial television service in the country. They were detained in January, and transferred in April to Black Beach prison in Malabo, without access to their lawyers. Both were reported to be in deteriorating health, having undertaken several hunger strikes to protest against the harsh living conditions in the prison.

Migrants’ rights

On 21 April, several Cameroonian nationals were expelled from the country without prior notification to the Cameroonian embassy. Cameroonian authorities condemned the measure, citing violation of regional conventions allowing freedom of movement for Central African citizens.

In May, vice-president Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue confirmed that the government had engaged in conversations with the US government concerning the possibility that Equatorial Guinea could become a recipient country for migrants expelled from the USA by President Donald Trump. The first group of deported immigrants arrived in Equatorial Guinea at the end of November.