Equatorial Guinea has categorically denied a report by leading French-language pan-African news magazine Jeune Afrique alleging that authorities had foiled a coup attempt in the oil-rich Central African country, describing the report as “completely false.”
In a report published on its website last week, Jeune Afrique claimed that Equatorial Guinean authorities had seized a shipping container at the port of Bata containing weapons allegedly destined for a coup attempt against President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the world’s longest-serving president.
The report said the seizure followed a tip-off from Russian intelligence services, whose presence in the country has reportedly been growing.
But in a rebuttal published on his official social media pages on Saturday, Equatorial Guinea’s Vice President, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, said no container carrying weapons linked to a coup attempt had been seized at the port of Bata.
He said no Equatorial Guinean authority had reported that the country had thwarted a coup attempt.
The Vice President, who is also known as Teodorín, further said Equatorial Guinea had received no alerts from Russian, American or Chinese intelligence services—or from any other country – about the alleged plot described in the Jeune Afrique report.
“It seems that some would have liked to wake up today to the news of a coup attempt in our nation. I regret disappointing them and spoiling their headline. It has not happened. Equatorial Guinea is calm and its institutions are functioning with absolute normality,” Obiang Mangue wrote.
Recurrent reports
According to Obiang Mangue, the Jeune Afrique report was not the first time the publication had carried what he described as unverified information about Equatorial Guinea based on anonymous sources.
He accused the news magazine of responding to “certain political and economic interests” allegedly seeking to damage the image of Africa in general and Equatorial Guinea in particular.
The Vice President further accused Jeune Afrique of becoming a “broken record” in its coverage of Equatorial Guinea, alleging that the publication has a permanent need “to manufacture controversies and conspiracies” and portray the country as a place of chaos and instability.
“That is not serious journalism; it is cheap press,” he said, urging national and international public opinion not to attach credibility to such information.
A former Spanish colony, Equatorial Guinea is no stranger to coup attempts. Having seized power from his uncle Francisco Macías Nguema in a military coup, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo’s regime has thwarted at least two major coup attempts in 2004 and 2017, according to media reports.
This report was first published in NewsWatch Newspaper No. 238 of Monday, September 7, 2026.
