Spain, concerned about the assault on the opposition CI party in Malabo, asks the Equatorial Guinean authorities for restraint

Commitment to the opening of dialogue channels between the Government and the opposition before the November elections

MADRID, 30 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Government has expressed its "extreme concern" over the siege and subsequent assault on the headquarters of the Equatorial Guinean opposition party Citizens for Innovation (CI) in Malabo and has asked the authorities of the former Spanish colony for containment and dialogue.

The opposition formation, the only one that won a seat in the 2017 parliamentary elections and that was outlawed in 2018, has denounced in a statement that its leader, Gabriel Nsé Obiang Obono, and "some 400 of his militants, have been besieged for 7 days without any judicial order to justify it".

CI has assured that many of them have been "murdered and kidnapped", among them women and children, although it has not offered any concrete balance, beyond promising that they will denounce the situation and ask for "justice in the face of such unjustified genocide and State terrorism ".

Thus, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed in a statement the Government's "extreme concern" "over the siege and assault by State security forces and bodies on the headquarters" of CI in Malabo.

"The information received of unusual violence between opponents and security forces* shows a climate of tension incompatible with the necessary dialogue during the current electoral period," Foreign Affairs has defended.

Equatorial Guinea is called to the polls on November 20 in presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections. The presidential elections were scheduled for early 2023 but have been brought forward and it has already been confirmed that the president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, in power since 1979, will opt for his re-election.

"Spain calls for containment and the opening of channels of dialogue between all political forces and civil society that allow the elections to be held in an atmosphere of tolerance and openness," the Government has claimed.

Likewise, he has appealed to the Equatorial Guinean authorities to "act with prudence and responsibility at such a delicate moment" and has stated "the need to preserve legal security and procedural guarantees for all detained persons."

The Spanish Embassy in Malabo had already recommended this Thursday, via Twitter, to the Spanish residents in Equatorial Guinea that they "adopt the usual precautionary measures in the face of the events that are taking place in Malabo".