Equatorial Guinea requests the departure of the WHO representative

Equatorial Guinea demands the departure of the representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) whom she accuses of inflating the assessment of the coronavirus in this small country of central Africa, according to the government and an official of the UN.

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“ The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Equatorial Guinea has the honor to request the WHO regional office for Africa to terminate the functions of Dr Triphonie Nkurunziza (..) and to ensure immediately his departure from Malabo, "reads a report from the ministry dated May 26 that AFP was able to consult on Tuesday. Friday before the Senate, the Equatorial Guinean Prime Minister Pascual Obama Asué accused the representative of having " falsified the data of persons contaminated " by the Covid-19. " We have no problem with the WHO, we have a problem with the WHO representative in Malabo, " he added during a session broadcast by state television.

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" The government has requested that she leave, we have received a report to that effect, she is accused of having falsified the Covid-19 data, " an official from the United Nations office confirmed to AFP on Tuesday. in Malabo, on condition of anonymity, while refusing to comment on this accusation. According to this source, Ms. Nkurunziza has not yet left Malabo because there is currently no flight allowing her to do so.

In this small oil country led by an iron fist by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema for forty years, the government affirms that there are 1,306 known cases of coronavirus and 12 deaths at the beginning of June, for 1.3 million inhabitants. However, the authorities have stopped updating this report daily since April 28, updating it only from time to time. The figures put forward by WHO, a UN agency, have sometimes exceeded those of Malabo since the start of the epidemic, even if they have become identical to this day.

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" If the WHO stops giving the Covid-19 figures, it will be difficult to have the real data on the evolution of the pandemic in Equatorial Guinea ", commented in a tweet the news site Radio Macuto, based in Spain and close to the opposition.