Equatorial Guinean dictator President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo is set to arrive in Uganda on Friday for a two-day official visit on invitation of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
His visit comes just after the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) welcomed his nation’s accession to the Kampala Convention on Internally Displaced People (IDPs), making Equatorial Guinea the 29th African Union (AU) member state to to commit to the convention.
The move by Nguema is strategic because the Kampala Convention is marking its 10th anniversary this year with activities organised by the AU with support from UNHCR and other partners.
He will tour, among others, the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement Centre, Panyandoli Health Centre III, Panyandoli Vocational School and Kiryandongo Hospital to have a first-hand experience on how Uganda has handled the refugee influx.
Nguema became president in 1979 and has been president since then after ousting his uncle Fancisco Macías Nguema, in an August 1979 military coup. He has since presided over the oil rich country with little or no interruption but widely criticized for crippling democracy and free speech in the west African country.
