-Baltasar Ebang Engonga has been sentenced to eight years in prison.
In Equatorial Guinea, scandal often comes dressed in a political mask. But rarely has it been this lurid.
Baltasar Ebang Engonga, nephew of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema and once considered a rising star within the regime, has been sentenced to eight years in prison.
The country’s supreme court found him guilty of embezzlement, capping off a spectacular fall from grace that blended sex, corruption, and dynastic intrigue.
The rise of “Bello”
Engonga, nicknamed “Bello” (handsome) for his attractive looks, once held one of the most sensitive jobs in the country: head of the National Financial Investigation Agency.
In theory, he was the man to trace illicit flows of cash. In practice, prosecutors said, he was the one stashing them away – diverting funds into secret Cayman Islands accounts.
He wasn’t alone. Five other officials were convicted alongside him, accused of claiming extravagant “travel allowances” ranging from $9,000 to $220,000.
But while their convictions sank quietly, Engonga’s case became front-page gossip because of what leaked next.
When politics met prime-time scandal
In October 2024, while under detention, his phones and laptops were seized. Within days, dozens of intimate videos spilt onto the internet.
They featured Engonga in compromising encounters with multiple women, many reportedly wives or relatives of men close to the president’s inner circle.
The country’s elite watched in horror; ordinary citizens in Malabo watched with fascination.
Social media lit up, memes exploded, and suddenly the anti-corruption chief had become Equatorial Guinea’s most infamous reality TV star.
The authenticity of the tapes was never formally confirmed, but their timing was uncanny.
In a state where nothing leaks by accident, the suspicion was clear: someone within the regime wanted Engonga’s reputation torched, and fast.
Dynastic succession in the shadows
Baltasar Ebang Engonga’s fall wasn’t just salacious – it was political.
His uncle, President Obiang, has ruled since 1979, making him the world’s longest-serving head of state.
For years, Obiang has been grooming his son, Teodoro Obiang Mangue – flashy, powerful, and already vice president – as heir apparent.
But Engonga, with his bloodline, youth, and charisma, was whispered about as an alternative successor.
His sudden scandal and imprisonment in Black Beach prison – a place feared as much as it is notorious – effectively removed him from the succession game.
In that sense, the “Bello” tapes may have been less about morality and more about clearing the dynasty’s path.
Humour in the humiliation
For all its political weight, the case has provided the public with endless comic fodder. Some quipped that “Bello fought corruption in the day but was exposed at night.”
“The tapes had more viewers than Equatorial Guinea’s state TV,” others joked.
Online, the memes turned a national embarrassment into a darkly comic soap opera. This is even as the reality for Baltasar Ebang Engonga became far grimmer.
The verdict and the afterlife of scandal
The Supreme Court fined him $220,000 (KSh 28 million) on top of his jail sentence, ensuring the punishment was both financial and reputational.
For a man once tasked with hunting corruption, the irony was delicious: the hunter undone by the very crime he policed.
Beyond the jokes and rumours, however, the case provides a sobering insight into Equatorial Guinea’s political system.
Family relationships can be brutally broken in a system that values them.
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