President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Was Sworn In for Another Term in Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema arrives for the innauguration of President Jacob Zuma in Pretoria May 9, 2009. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

Nguema sworn in for fresh term

AFP-HR.

MALABO. President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, in power for three decades and re-elected president of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, was sworn in yesterday for a fresh seven-year term.

Obiang Nguema, who secured more than 95 percent of the vote, pledged to ensure the well-being of his people and the "prosperity of the Republic".

The swearing-in ceremony in the central African nation’s economic capital Bata was attended by several continental heads of state.

After oil was discovered in the 1990s, tiny Equatorial Guinea became the third largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, but most of the population of less than a million live in extreme poverty.

During the campaign, Obiang Nguema’s four rivals frequently reproached him for unfair distribution of the oil wealth.

Obiang Nguema came to power in a 1979 coup that ousted his uncle and first president of the former Spanish colony, Francisco Macias Nguema.

He has ruled the country since then. — AFP-HR.