Holding Power to Account: How the EU Can Use Magnitsky Sanctions to Undermine Kleptocracy in Equatorial Guinea

Hundreds of millions of dollars in corrupt assets from the President’s son, Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue have been seized in Brazil, France, Switzerland, and the United States in recent years. These include 40 luxury cars seized in France and Switzerland. (Photo Credit - Reuters)

For decades, the people of Equatorial Guinea have endured one of the most repressive regimes in the world. The country’s leaders have enriched themselves at the expense of their citizens and overseen egregious human rights abuses.

ILP, on behalf of its partners, has formally submitted a sanctions request with supporting evidence to the EU’s Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime (GHRSR) demonstrating that abuses in Equatorial Guinea are widespread, systematic, and of serious concern to the EU’s foreign policy and human rights objectives. The sanctions submission far exceeds the legal threshold for sanctions. The international community has repeatedly condemned these violations. Yet, until now, the perpetrators have faced no meaningful accountability.

By imposing targeted sanctions through the GHRSR, the EU can send a clear message to those who commit corruption and human rights violations that they will face consequences.

The Role of the EU

The EU’s sanctions regime allows the EU to impose asset freezes, travel bans and restrictions on individuals and entities responsible for serious human rights abuses. It has already been applied to perpetrators from Eritrea, Libya, North Korea, South Sudan, Syria, Russia and Iran.

By taking action to address the situation in Equatorial Guinea, the EU can demonstrate that impunity will not be tolerated. Sanctions will raise the cost of repression, restrict access to luxury lifestyles abroad, and show solidarity with victims.

Teodoro Nguema, Vice President and son of the President of Equatorial Guinea, was convicted of embezzlement and money laundering by French courts in 2021: €150 million of his assets were confiscated. Photo credit: EG Justice 

Four Decades of Dictatorship

The current ruler, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, is the longest-serving incumbent President in the world, with power concentrated within his family. Monitoring by international human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, detail how institutions that should ensure accountability have been reshaped into instruments of repression, surveillance, intimidation and torture, used to entrench the regime’s power.

Freedom House’s 2025 evaluation of Equatorial Guinea found: “Oil wealth and political power are concentrated in the hands of the president’s family… the government detains opposition figures, cracks down on civil society, and censors journalists.”

Evidence of Abuse

ILP’s sanctions team, in collaboration with Equatorial Guinean human rights defenders and international legal experts, has submitted a dossier to the GHRSR, the EU’s Sanctions Directorate, documenting how senior government figures in Equatorial Guinea have abused their official positions of power, violated rights and suppressed accountability. These abuses are not isolated incidents, but part of a deliberate strategy to silence criticism and preserve control. The patterns detailed in our sanctions submission include:

• Arbitrary detention and torture

• Politicised show trials

• Mass arrests of youth with torture-extracted confessions

• Transnational kidnappings

• Violent attacks against opposition parties

• Torture in military-run prisons.

Human rights NGOs presented submissions to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in September 2025, detailing the deteriorating human rights situation in Equatorial Guinea. This mirrored similar submissions made to the UN HRC and other human rights bodies in previous years. Photo Credit: EG Justice 

Why Sanctions Are a Path to Accountability

In Equatorial Guinea, there is no functioning rule of law that allows perpetrators to be brought to justice within the country. This is precisely the kind of situation the GHRSR was designed to address. When domestic systems are incapable of holding abusers accountable, the international community can, through targeted, individual sanctions regimes, help drive positive change.

Targeted GHRSR sanctions can:

• Disrupt the networks of privilege and protection that shield perpetrators

• Restrict access to offshore wealth, luxury assets, and international travel

• Increase the political cost of continued repression.

The GHRSR would not be acting alone. France, the UK and the United States have already imposed sanctions or seized assets linked to senior figures in the country, including Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the Vice President and son of the president of Equatorial Guinea. But other leading political figures complicit in human rights and corruption have so far escaped any accountability.

The Hidden Support via Economic Ties

It is important to acknowledge the role that EU trade plays in sustaining this authoritarianism. Equatorial Guinea’s economy is overwhelmingly dependent on oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) which account for more than 90% of its export earnings. Europe remains one of its largest buyers, importing nearly a billion dollars’ worth of the country's hydrocarbons in 2023. These revenues bankroll the patronage networks that protect abusers, fund the security forces responsible for arbitrary arrests, torture, and disappearances, and finance luxury lifestyles of the ruling elite while citizens live in poverty.

By deploying EHGHR sanctions to freeze assets, restrict travel, and cut off access to European financial systems, the EU can ensure that trade flows do not translate into impunity for human rights violators. Additionally, asset restitution agreements present another risk of reinforcing kleptocracy if not properly safeguarded. For example, in September 2025, Switzerland signed a CHF 22.8 million restitution agreement with Equatorial Guinea. However, the agreement does not currently include safeguards preventing elite re-capture of funds, transparent public spending mechanisms, independent monitoring, or civil society participation.

ILP’s partner EG Justice has urged Switzerland and all European governments to align repatriation agreements with the Global Forum on Asset Recovery (GFAR) Principles, to ensure returned assets benefit citizens, not the ruling elite.

A Call for Justice

EHGHR sanctions do not punish a population, they hold individual perpetrators to account. Public wealth should serve public good, not the enrichment of a ruling elite using state organs of power to violently suppress citizens. Clear evidence of systematic, ongoing abuses that fall squarely within the EU’s human rights sanctions framework has been submitted to the sanctions regime. By imposing targeted sanctions on those responsible, the EU can take meaningful, immediate action against impunity.

ILP’s Governance and Accountability Team is committed to supporting partners with expert pro bono legal support to combat kleptocracy globally and provides pro bono legal support on all aspects of sanctions designations—from training and strategy, to dossier compilation and advocacy, to securing a final listing. For more information on how we can help, please contact us.