The Republic Of The Equatorial Guinea has told the WHO representative to leave, accusing her of “falsifying” the country’s tally of coronavirus cases, according to the government and the UN health agency.
A file dated May 26 was seen by AFP on Tuesday, the foreign ministry asked the World Health Organization’s regional office in Africa “to end the duties” of its representative in Equatorial Guinea, Dr. Triponie Nkurunziza “and immediately oversee her departure from Malabo.”
Prime Minister Pascual Obama Asue, appearing at the senate last Friday accused Nkurunzize of “falsifying the data of people contaminated” by COVID-19.
“We don’t have a problem with thee WHO, we have a problem with the WHO’s representative in Malabo,” he said remarks broadcast on state television.
An Informant at the UN office in Malabo, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the government’s request but declined to go into details.
“The government has asked her to go, we have a document – she is accused of falsifying COVID-19 figures,” the source said.
However, Dr Nkurunziza is still in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea’ss Island capital, and there are no flights enabling her to leave.
The Equatorial Guinea is an oil-rich coastal state that President Teodoro Obiang Nguema has ruled with an iron fist for 40 years
The authorities said that as of June 1, 2020, there were 1306 recorded cases of coronavirus, 12 of them fatalities, in a population of 1.3 million.
The official tally used to be updated daily, but this practice stopped on april 28, and the update is now being publishes from time to time.
Statistics put forward by the WHO have sometimes been somewhat higher than the national tally, although both tolls are the same right now.
