DAKAR, Senegal — Every member of Equatorial Guinea’s Cabinet has stepped down after the government failed to meet the overwhelming majority of its stated goals, according to Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue.
The vice president, who is also the son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, announced Tuesday that Prime Minister Manuel Osa Nsue Nsuga had formally submitted the Cabinet’s resignation following a dramatic shortfall in government performance. According to the vice president, just 10% of the government’s targets were met, though he did not explain how those targets were defined or measured.
“The degree of execution achieved is clearly insufficient in relation to the expectations and commitments undertaken,” the vice president wrote in a statement published on X.
The ruling Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea, known as the PDGE, stated that President Obiang was deeply dissatisfied with how the government had performed, pointing to widespread corruption, delays in development projects, and an inability to broaden the country’s economic base beyond oil.
Officials indicated that a new government would likely be put in place within the next several days.
Despite the sweeping Cabinet shake-up, analysts do not expect the change to meaningfully shift how power is distributed in Equatorial Guinea. President Obiang has held power since 1979, making him Africa’s longest-serving head of state. He controls the country’s political system and personally selects government members.
In this oil-rich Central African nation, dissenting voices are virtually nonexistent. Human rights organizations and the U.S. State Department have accused the country’s authorities of detaining, torturing, and even killing individuals who speak out against the government.
Equatorial Guinea is also among ten African nations that have signed widely criticized agreements with the Trump administration to accept deportees from third countries.
