US-based Equatorial Guinea activist has strongly criticised President Theodoro Obiang Nguema for shielding former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh from facing justice.Calls are intensifying for ex-longtime ruler to be held accountable for numerous crimes committed under his two-decade long regime, punctuated by arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and extra-judicial
killings.
“The decision by Equatorial Guinea to protect former President Yahya Jammeh from indictment is a matter of deep concern,” Ayeca Eyene Rufino told this reporter.
Africa’s longest serving dictator has made it clear that he is not ready to succumb to the pressure of human rights organisations and the victims’ centre to hand over ex-Gambian dictator to the Hague-based International Criminal Court, which according to him, will be a ‘witch-hunt’.
Rufino said that pressure must be mounted on President Nguema to hand over Jammeh for for trial. “This should start from the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN), including the US government and the United Kingdom (UK),” he added.
He described President Nguema’s evoking of ‘simple humanistic reasons as fake because the Equatorial Guinea leader is only interested in laying hand on the million of dollars looted by Jammeh.
Rufino also has got an axe to grind with Ugandan President Yuweri Museveni, accusing him of helping Obiang to drag Equatorial Guinea deep into the mud of dictatorship. “More than 400 Ugandan mercenaries are currently in the country, terrorising the civilian population in the capital Malabo,” he said, explaining how these Ugandan mercenaries pose a security threat to the entire Central-East African region.
Abdoulie John
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