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Exiled E.Guinea opposition leaders appeal for international help

Leaders of Equatorial Guinea’s exiled opposition appealed to the international community on Wednesday to help them return to the tiny West African state to push for its transition to democracy.

Equatorial Guinea’s president Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has ruled the oil-rich country with an iron fist since 1979, granted a “total” amnesty to activists and members of the opposition last month ahead of a “national dialogue”.

But political leaders living in self-imposed exile abroad did not attend the July talks in the former Spanish colony involving government, civil society groups, religious and other groups due to fears for their safety.

Leading exiled figure Severo Moto Nsa called on the international community, led by Spain, to ensure that exiled opposition leaders could safely return to Equatorial Guinea so they could begin to lay the groundwork for the country’s transition to democracy once Obiang dies.

He also appealed for badly needed financial aid for Equatorial Guinea’s exiled opposition parties at a Madrid press conference called by a coalition of six exiled opposition parties, including his Progress Party.

“We need economic aid and protection,” Moto, 74, the leader of the Progress Party of Equatorial Guinea said, flanked by representatives of two other exiled opposition parties.

“We want to fix the country with Spain. If Spain supports us, France will support us, and the United States will support us. If Spain tells Obiang ‘don’t touch any of them’, the international community will tell him that as well.”

Spain, France and the United States are key as they are the biggest foreign investors in Equatorial Guinea, mainly in the energy and telecoms sectors, Moto said.

Obiang, 76, seized power in Equatorial Guinea by ousting his own uncle, first post-independence president Francisco Macias Nguema, who was then shot by firing squad.

He won a fifth seven-year term in 2016 with nearly 94 percent of the ballot. General elections last November saw his party win 92 percent of the vote. Both elections have been criticised as fraudulent.

Critics accuse him of brutal repression of opponents as well as election fraud and corruption.

Equatorial Guinea has become one of sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest oil producers, but a large proportion of its 1.2 million population lives in poverty.