Equatorial Guinea holds regular elections, but voting is neither free nor fair. The current president, who took power in a military coup, has led a highly repressive authoritarian regime since 1979. Oil wealth and political power are concentrated in the hands of the president’s family. The government frequently detains opposition politicians, cracks down on civil society, and censors journalists. The judiciary is under presidential control, and security forces engage in torture and other violence with relative impunity.

• A number of human rights activists and political dissidents were arrested and detained during the year. For example, Anacleto Micha Ndong was arrested in January for allegedly defaming a prison guard by accusing him of torture during a previous detention; the activist was later placed in pretrial detention at the same prison. Also in January, activist Liberato Bielo Biacho was arrested after criticizing the government online. In August, activist Joaquín Elo Ayeto was arrested for allegedly engaging in illegal activities through an unregistered nongovernmental organization. All those detained were held in dangerous and opaque conditions, and a member of the opposition party Citizens for Innovation who had been arrested in 2022, Filemón Owono Obiang, died in custody in September after allegedly suffering torture and inadequate medical treatment.
• The country’s bar association confirmed a two-year suspension of lawyer Gemma Jones in July, after she was provisionally suspended the previous December for a social media post in which she criticized the judicial system. In August, lawyer Ángel Obama Obiang Eseng was temporarily detained and suspended from the bar after attempting to assist his detained client, Joaquín Elo Ayeto; the suspension was later lifted in December.
• Some three dozen people were arrested in July after protesting environmental damage from mining operations on the island of Annobón. They were accused of links to an illegal separatist movement, and in August the authorities restricted access to internet and mobile communications on the island. Francisco Ballovera Estrada, a poet and member of the opposition party Convergence for Social Democracy, was also arrested in July while attempting to bring supplies to those already detained.
• Baltasar Ebang Engonga—a nephew of the president and head of the country’s National Financial Investigation Agency—was arrested on corruption charges in October, and a series of videos of him having sex began to circulate on social media. Observers speculated that the case was a politically motivated bid to sideline a potential successor to President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
• Rubén Mayé Nsue Mangue, a pastor, former justice minister, and ambassador to the United States, was pardoned and released in July; he had been detained since 2022 after allegedly criticizing the government in sermons and on social media. Separately, in November, the Justice Ministry permanently closed a church called Luz de Naciones: Isaías 60, accusing its leaders of contempt of authority and disruption of public order.

This report has been abridged for Freedom in the World 2025 due to ongoing budget constraints. Freedom in the World is entirely funded by nongovernmental sources such as private foundations, corporations, and individuals like you. Please consider making a donation to support future editions of this vital resource.

For additional background information, see last year’s full report.