Equatorial Guinea government resigns after missing targets, vice president says

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DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The entire Cabinet in Equatorial Guinea has resigned after failing to achieve the vast majority of the government's goals, Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue said.

Obiang, who is also the son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, said Tuesday that Prime Minister Manuel Osa Nsue Nsuga had submitted the Cabinet's resignation after falling far short of government targets. He said the government had achieved only 10% of its targets, but did not say how those targets were measured.

“The degree of execution achieved is clearly insufficient in relation to the expectations and commitments undertaken,” the vice president said in a statement posted on X.

The ruling Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea, or PDGE, said the president was dissatisfied with the government’s performance, citing corruption, delays in development projects and a failure to diversify the economy.

A new government was expected to be appointed in the coming days.

The move is unlikely to alter the balance of power in Equatorial Guinea. President Obiang, who has been in power since 1979 as Africa's longest-serving president, dominates the political system and appoints the government.

There are virtually no critical voices in the oil-rich Central African country, where the authorities have been accused by rights groups and the U.S. State Department of detaining, torturing and even killing those that dare to speak out.

It is also one of ten African countries to have signed widely criticized deals with the Trump administration to take third-country deportees.