Equatorial Guinea’s vice-president warned civil servants that sexual activity in the workplace would be met with severe consequences after leaked videos circulated online.
Vice-President Teodoro Obiang Mangue said anyone found having sex at work would be suspended, calling such conduct a flagrant violation of the code of conduct. He also ordered the installation of surveillance cameras in courts and ministries to combat what the government described as indecent and illicit acts.
The announcement followed the public spread of hundreds of allegedly pornographic videos that reportedly showed high-ranking civil servant Baltasar Ebang Engonga engaged in sex with various women in his office, including some described as wives of prominent officials. According to the report, Engonga heads the country’s National Financial Investigation Agency and is also a relative of the president.
The videos were leaked after Engonga was arrested on separate corruption charges, state television TVGE said. The vice-president’s office said the measures were intended to respond to material that had denigrated the image of the country, and it recommended opening an investigation. In a further sign of the authorities’ alarm, Obiang later said pornographic videos had been flooding social media and ordered telecoms companies to curb their spread.
The episode has had practical as well as reputational effects. People in Equatorial Guinea told AFP that internet traffic, particularly the downloading of images, had been severely disrupted. That suggests the government’s response extended beyond discipline and surveillance into attempts to limit the circulation of the material itself.
The chief prosecutor, Anatolio Nzang Nguema, also told state television that if Engonga were found to have been infected with a sexually transmitted disease, he could be prosecuted for an offence against public health. That comment shows how the scandal quickly widened from workplace conduct to questions of public morality and state discipline.
The report describes the official reaction as both punitive and preventive. The suspension threat is aimed at individual misconduct, while the cameras are meant to deter future behaviour in government buildings. Together they reflect an effort to reassert control after a social-media scandal embarrassed the authorities.
Engonga’s role made the story especially sensitive. As head of the National Financial Investigation Agency, he occupied a post associated with financial-crimes enforcement, including money laundering investigations. That made the leaked material more damaging because it implicated a senior official in conduct the government said undermined public trust.
The underlying allegations remain tied to leaked videos and to official responses rather than a public criminal finding on the conduct itself. But the political message was unmistakable: the state wanted to signal that offices are not private spaces and that public service carries discipline rules that can be enforced harshly when officials are seen to violate them.
