Baltasar Engonga: The Untold Story Of Equatorial Guinea’s Sex Tape Leak

In recent weeks, Equatorial Guinea has been rocked by an explosive scandal involving leaked sex tapes of Baltasar Ebang Mr Engonga, a senior civil servant and nephew of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

What began as a salacious scandal may, in fact, be the latest power play in the fight over the country’s presidential succession.

Dozens of explicit videos—estimated between 150 to more than 400— surfaced on social media, showing Mr Engonga, known as “Bello” for his good looks, engaging in sexual acts with multiple women in his office and other locations. Some of the women were reported to be the wives and relatives of high-ranking officials, adding fuel to the political firestorm.

While the identity of those who leaked the tapes remained unclear, some speculated that the scandal was part of a coordinated effort to discredit Mr Engonga. He was one of several figures thought to be vying to replace President Nguema, the world’s longest-serving president, who has ruled Equatorial Guinea since 1979.

As news of the tapes spread, observers began questioning the timing and purpose of the leaks. Just days before the videos surfaced, Mr Engonga was arrested on charges of embezzling state funds and was held in the notorious Black Beach prison. His phones and computers were confiscated, leading to suspicions that security forces may have been involved in leaking the recordings.

Equatoguinean activist Nsang Christia Esimi Cruz, speaking from London on the ‘BBC Focus on Africa’ podcast, suggested that the scandal was part of a larger power struggle. “What we are seeing is the end of an era, the end of the current president, and there is a succession and this is the internal fighting we are seeing,” said Mr Cruz.

He believed Vice President Teodoro Obiang Mangue—who also happened to be the president’s son—was using the scandal to eliminate political opponents, including Engonga.

The vice president made headlines before for his extravagant lifestyle, which included once owning a $275,000 crystal-encrusted glove worn by Michael Jackson. However, Mr Cruz alleged that the vice-president, along with his mother, was now clearing the path for his ascension to power by sidelining potential challengers.

While the leaked videos captivated the public beyond Equatorial Guinea, some activists argued that the real issue was much larger. Equatorial Guinea was plagued by economic decline as its once-booming oil reserves dwindled. Despite vast wealth among a small elite, many of the country’s 1.7 million residents continued to live in poverty. The Nguema administration faced numerous accusations of human rights abuses, including arbitrary killings and torture, according to a United States government report.

Activist Cruz expressed frustration that international attention focused on the sex scandal rather than the broader problems facing the country. “Equatorial Guinea has much bigger problems than this sex scandal,” he said, explaining that the leak is “just a symptom of the illness, it’s not the illness itself.”

Indeed, palace intrigue has long been a defining feature of Equatorial Guinea’s political landscape. Although the country held regular elections, there was no meaningful opposition. Political rivals and activists were often jailed or exiled, and allegations of coup plotting were common. The scandal appeared to be the latest chapter in this ongoing struggle for power.

In response to the scandal, Vice-President Obiang Mangue took swift action. On October 30, he ordered telecom companies to curb the spread of the videos. “We cannot continue to watch families fall apart without taking any action,” he wrote on social media. Despite the efforts, the clips continued to circulate.

Engonga faced additional legal troubles. The police encouraged the women involved in the videos to file complaints, and at least one has announced her intention to sue him for non-consensual distribution of the tapes. It remained unclear why Engonga recorded his sexcapades, though some suggested it was for personal leverage.

LEADERSHIP reports that on November 6, the vice-president called for the installation of CCTV cameras in government offices “to combat indecent and illicit acts” and ordered that officials caught engaging in sex at work be suspended. He also lamented that the scandal had “denigrated the image of the country.”

The incident cast a shadow over President Nguema’s legacy as his 44-year rule neared its end. His administration’s crackdown on social media, including temporary internet suspensions during protests earlier this year, raised concerns among activists. Mr Cruz suspected he government may use this scandal as a pretext to impose further restrictions on social media, the main platform for information dissemination in the country.

While the sex tapes brought international attention to Equatorial Guinea, particularly in neighbouring Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, the larger issue remained the uncertain future of the presidency. With various factions jostling for power, the country’s political elite appeared to be on the brink of a major reshuffle—one where sex, scandal, and secrecy continued to play pivotal roles.

SARAH VINE: How absurd of women who dislike Trump to go on a sex strike

All over social media, American women are shaving their heads and swearing off sex with their partners in protest at Donald Trump’s re-election.

Quoting the 4B movement, which originated in South Korea, they are urging other women to adopt the principles of no dating, no intercourse, no marriage and no children to ‘punish’ their menfolk for choosing Trump over Kamala Harris.

Don’t get me wrong: I have serious reservations about Trump, as I’m sure anyone with half a brain does. But the idea that his return to the White House will usher in an era of female repression equivalent to the kind of dystopian nightmare depicted in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is absurd.

Yes, Trump has had many ‘women’ problems (see Stormy Daniels et al); yes, a Republican rump supports hardline policies on abortion; yes, his deputy called Harris ‘a childless cat lady’, but that was just banter (dare I say maybe even a joke, a concept that American liberals increasingly seem to have trouble processing).

And besides, it was a lot less offensive than dismissing opposition supporters as ‘garbage’, which Joe Biden did.

But the idea that Trump will preside over a misogynist administration that will strip women of their rights, relegate them to the status of second-class citizens and chain them, barefoot and bleeding, to the kitchen sink is simply deluded.

Also, it’s very narcissistic. America’s debt is $35.85 trillion. There’s a hideous war in the Middle East. Don’t these drama queens realise the President-elect has bigger fish to fry?

Whatever else Trump may be, he’s an old-fashioned Boomer libertarian (his political muse being Ronald Reagan). He believes in free markets and freedom of expression. The last thing he’s going to do is neutralise half the country’s taxpayers, many of whom voted for him – 44 per cent, in fact, which is quite something given how supposedly reviled he is among the fairer sex.

The truth is, surely, that America’s women care about things such as the economy, international politics and the loss of women’s rights in other areas, such as schools and prisons and the sporting field. After all, one of Trump’s campaign promises was to ‘keep men out of women’s sport’ and withdraw funding from hospitals that offer gender reassignment surgery to minors.

The ‘punish men’ attitude of these blue-haired hysteriacs is so one-dimensional, superficial and deeply reductive. What’s more, it’s rather pathetic considering all the bigger issues affecting women across the wider world.

If you want to shave your head in solidarity with your downtrodden sisters, do it in support of women who really know the meaning of male oppression.

Women such as the Tehran university student who stripped to her underwear last week after a confrontation with the regime’s so-called ‘morality police’. She was last seen being bundled into a car by the authorities. God only knows her current fate, assuming she’s still alive.

Or what about all the girls in Iraq who’ll soon find themselves unable to escape the slavering clutches of their much older husbands when the ruling Shia majority lowers the age of consent to nine?

Why aren’t heads being shaved to draw attention to their plight? Or to the thousands of Yazidi women and children captured, sold and abused by Isis in Syria, or the schoolgirls abducted and forced into sex slavery by Boko Haram in Nigeria?

Or what about the women of Afghanistan, forbidden to speak to each other in public, let alone do anything as radical as obtain an education, or leave home with even an inch of flesh on show?

I could go on, but the list is endless and there’s not enough space on this page.

Suffice to say that these moist-eyed liberals with their smug, self-regarding expressions of woe won’t shave their heads for these women, but will do it for their own self-regard – while happily living in the world’s largest liberal democracy. If they hate it so much, why don’t they swap places with some of their sisters elsewhere?

In any case, don’t they know about history? In Hitler’s concentration camps, the first thing Nazi guards did to new inmates was shave their heads. Will life under Trump be comparable to that of six million Jews under Hitler?

Such performative feminism disgraces us all, and makes women look weak and ridiculous. Get a grip, for heaven’s sake. Find something real to worry about.

Trump’s re-election is already boosting the ailing US economy. Shrinks in New York report a 15 per cent uptick in distraught Democrats seeking appointments to ‘work through’ their post-election ‘trauma’. Given how much those guys charge, that’s got to be a positive, surely?

DailyMail

Yahaya Bello Disgracing our Party*
*- APC Youth Vanguard

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Youth Vanguard has warned the former Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello to stop disgracing the party over his running battle with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

In a statement released on Sunday and signed by the Coordinator of APC Youth Vanguard, Rasheed Sanusi, the group wondered why the former governor “has been evading justice and bringing the Party into disrepute.”

The Youth Vanguard urged Bello to toe the path of honour and turn himself in to account for his time and tenure in office and safe the party and the presidency from further embarrassment, especially in view of the recent arrest of former governors of the opposition party, the People Democratic Party, PDP, by the EFCC.

The statement reads in part, “Bello’s consistent disobedience of court summons and forum shopping are now being misinterpreted as a result of protection by the Presidency being a member of the APC and having played a role in the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council.
The helplessness explained recently by the Presidential spokesman in a television interview is neither helpful nor acceptable.

“Orji Uzor Kalu was quoted as saying ‘I had a case with the EFCC. I appeared in all court proceedings for 12 years, I never ran away and I never missed any court sitting. I am not the kind of person that will dodge court sittings.

“Ex-Taraba State Governor Darius Ishaku has also been arrested by EFCC to account for his actions and activities while in office and has since been released on bail.

“Only last week, ex-Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa was arrested and released on administrative bail.
“Also, the outgoing Governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki has declared his readiness to answer EFCC’s invitation, if invited.

“So, why is Yahaya Bello shunning court summons? Who are those in the Presidency allegedly protecting Bello? This seemingly state of helplessness is embarrassing to our Party, the Presidency and the country as a whole. It is a global shame. We urge Bello to voluntarily appear for arraignment at the courts or be forced to do so by inter-agency cooperation. Enough is enough!”