Equatorial Guinea. A sex scandal involving Baltasar Ebang Engonga, a relative of President Teodoro Obianga. Hundreds of recordings

The BBC announced that the recordings had appeared online in early November. According to reports, they show, among others, a high-ranking official from the local Ministry of Finance, Baltasar Ebang Engonga, having sex with many different women, including the wives of other prominent officials. The recordings were to be recorded in government buildings.

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In another publication on this subject, the BBC writes that from 150 to over 400 such recordings have been leaked in the last two weeks. According to the British broadcaster, some of the women captured in the recordings were aware that they were being filmed.

Engonga is the head of the country's National Financial Investigation Agency, and his work included combating financial crimes such as money laundering. Privately, he is a relative of the country's president, Teodoro Obianga Nguema Mbasogo, who is currently the longest-serving president in the world and has been in office for 45 years. According to the BBC, Engonga is among the people who could replace the long-time helmsman of this Central African country.

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The British station indicates that the leak occurred after the services searched Engonga's house and detained him in connection with another case in which he was charged with corruption. On October 25, he was arrested on charges of misappropriating a huge sum of money from public treasury and depositing it in secret accounts in the Cayman Islands. His phones and computers were confiscated, and a few days later intimate videos began to appear online.

“As the computer equipment was in the hands of the security forces, suspicions fell on someone who may have wanted to destroy Engonga's reputation ahead of his trial (on corruption charges),” the British broadcaster reported.

The BBC writes that the appearance of sex tapes with Engonga on the Internet may be part of a dispute at the highest levels of power or even a fight over who will become the next president of Equatorial Guinea. According to one theory, the leak of these recordings was intended to discredit the man who was “at the center of the political storm.” “Politics in the country is really about palace intrigues and this is where the scandal involving Engonga fits in,” it was stated.

The BBC writes that in one of the first posts to appear on the Internet regarding the sex scandal, it was written that there was a “monumental scandal that shook the regime.”

“What we are witnessing is the end of an era, the end of the current president, but the question remains who will replace him. So we see that there is an internal struggle going on,” said activist from Equatorial Guinea Nsang Christia Esimi Cruz, quoted by the BBC .

Suspicions about who could be behind the leak of the recordings fall – as the British station's website further writes – on the first vice-president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mangue, the son of the current president. “It is alleged that the vice president and his mother are pushing aside anyone who threatens his path to the presidency, including Gabriel Obiang Lima (another son of President Obiang from a relationship with another woman), who was oil minister for 10 years, and then moved to a secondary government position,” we read.

On November 5, the country's vice president, Nguema Obiang Mangue, announced that any official caught having sex at work would be suspended, and that the situation in recent days constituted a “gross violation of the code of conduct.”

He also said he had ordered new measures aimed at preventing officials from engaging in unacceptable behavior in places of work. These included installing cameras in all offices and beefing up security to combat “indecent and illegal acts.”

The vice president's statement confirmed that the authorities were making these decisions due to “sexual recordings that have circulated on social media and which are maligning the image of the country.” It was added that people who appeared in the recordings will be suspended, although their names were not given. In turn, people responsible for protecting the buildings where the materials were to be created will be reprimanded for failing to fulfill their duties.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo is a former military man who became president of Equatorial Guinea in a coup d'état in 1979. In Equatorial Guinea, the vast majority of its 1.7 million inhabitants live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.

Obiang's administration has been heavily criticized over allegations of violations human rightsincluding, among others, torture against prisoners. The BBC writes that despite regular elections, there is no real opposition in the country because activists are imprisoned or remain in exile, and those who intend to take a high-ranking office are closely monitored by the services.