Equatorial Guinea
Speculations over Equatoguinean President's health

afrol News, 4 February - Again, the alleged repeating health problems of the President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, are making headlines. Obiang was forced to travel "urgently" and "headlong" to Paris. The government does not wish to explain the motives of the sudden journey, while the opposition maintains he is hospitalised in Paris, suffering from prostate cancer. 

This history however seems to repeat itself regularly. For a number of years, there have been strong rumours the Equatoguinean President suffers from prostate cancer, which obliges him to seek treatment in foreign luxury hospitals from time to time. This is however firmly denied by the President himself and his government until now. 

The governing Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) on Friday admitted Obiang had travelled to Paris, but was not declined to disclose the motive of the President's journey. Antonio Mba Nguema, General-Director of National Security and the President's brother, confirmed the news that had leaked about the President being in Paris.

Mba Nguema further confirmed the journey had a private character. He claimed "the journey of the Guinean Head of State to Paris is not an official visit - well, the President is also a person. He has his private matters as any person."

Meanwhile, the opposition has launched heavy attacks on the government for hiding that the Head of State leaves the country; information the Equatoguinean population should have access to. 

According to a release by the exiled Equatoguinean opposition party, Union of Independent Democrats (UDI), they had been given information Obiang was admitted to the "American hospital of Paris" to be treated by cancer specialist and ex-minister Bernard Debré, who had operated the French ex-President François Mitterand. Mitterand died of prostate cancer in 1996. This information has not been confirmed, neither by French nor by Equatoguinean authorities. 

President Obiang, 60 years of age, only has made sparse comments regarding his health to the press over the years. He told the state-owned press that these repeating rumours were a "failure of the part of the press that neither respects the privacy of important personalities nor understands what professional ethics means." 

In 1999, however, the President admitted he had had a relapse into malaria. But he also was quick to add that he still felt "young, fit for fight, just as a boy of 25 or 30 years."

Since the increasing signs of the President's deteriorating health conditions became a matter of public interest, his first-borne son, "Teodorín" has accumulated power in Malabo with the assistance of his father. 

Sources: Based on La Diáspora and afrol archives 

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