UPDATE: 03/16/19 - 2:16 AM
After the arrest at the Malabo Airport, Alfredo has reappeared in the city of Bata, in the continental part of the country. Apparently the police had secretly taken him by plane to Bata where he has been released (apparently under surveillance) and without his phone.

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This time he was arrested at the airport of Malabo when he was about to board on a flight to Madrid, representatives from the French and German Embassies witnessed the detention, they were about to deliver him the German-French award on human rights and rule of law yesterday, March 15.

Alfredo Okenve was about to receive at 3pm, in a solemn ceremony at the French Cultural Center in Malabo, an award for his work in defense of human rights. Surprisingly, the Government of Equatorial Guinea decided to sabotage the ceremony by ordering the arbitrary detention of the Vice President of the Center for Studies and Initiatives for the Development of Equatorial Guinea (CEID GE). On the morning of the 15th the police arrested  a relative, Joaquín Mangue Obama, who was interrogated about Alfredo's whereabouts and released a few hours later.

As this news broke, the French embassy informed all the guests through SMS that the ceremony had to be postponed to a later date.

Meanwhile, Alfredo Okenve, also alerted by relatives and friends, as well as by the different embassies, sought refuge in at French embassy and modified his flight to Madrid for the night of the 15th, as he had already planned to travel on Monday, the 18th. In Madrid he had to continue with the medical examinations as a consequence of the brutal aggression against him in November 2018.

It seems that the voice of Alfredo was going to bother in the coming weeks’ events such as the Universal Periodic Review of Equatorial Guinea before the United Nations, or the request of Equatorial Guinea to re-enter in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. This new arbitrary detention should once again highlight the zero will to change of the government of Equatorial Guinea, a country that sits on the United Nations Security Council as a non-permanent member.

Given this situation and knowing the human rights record of police authorities and the ill treatment of detainees such as the most recent detention and torture of the activist Paysa Elo Ayeto, CEID GE wants to warn about of the seriousness of this new detention and urges the Government of Equatorial Guinea carefully measure the consequences of its repeated violations of the fundamental rights of its citizens and in particular of Alfredo Okenve, who has just been awarded for his leadership and struggle precisely for the respect of human rights.

Finally, we ask national and international civil society organizations, the international community in general and citizens to join CEID GE in demanding the immediate release and the immediate cessation of all acts of intimidation against Alfredo and all those who fight for human rights in the country.