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Article

27 Mar 2019

Author:
PWYP & 17 other organisations

Equatorial Guinea: Human rights defender receives serious death threats


"Prominent human rights defender under serious threats to his life in Equatorial Guinea", 19 March 2019

A group of human rights and anti-corruption civil society organisations* is appalled by the illegal detention and house arrest of human rights defender Alfredo Okenve Ndoho on the same day that he was supposed to receive the Franco-German Human Rights Award at a ceremony organised by the French Embassy in Malabo last Friday. Sources and previous incidents indicate he is facing serious threats to his life.

Alfredo is a prominent human rights defender who has relentlessly been denouncing corrupt practices and human rights violations in Equatorial Guinea, particularly highlighting transparency issues related to the extractive industries. He is Vice President of the NGO Centro de Estudios e iniciativas para el Desarrollo (CEID).

[On 15 March, Alfredo] sought to urgently leave the country for fear for his life, [he] was detained at the Malabo airport passport control office. Eight security officers secretly flew him handcuffed to Bata aboard a military plane. Once in Bata, he was driven to an undisclosed location until his drivers decided to go back to the city to bring him to his house in Bata, where he has been under house arrest since. He received the instruction of not leaving his house under any circumstances. His passport and mobile phone were seized by the police...

...Civil society organisations are particularly worried that these attacks will intensify at the prospect of the upcoming Universal Periodic Review (UPR) which Equatorial Guinea will undergo in May in Geneva – in an attempt to quell dissenting voice.