LEGAL FRAMEWORK

The constitution provides for freedom of religion and worship and prohibits political parties based on religious affiliation. The law states there is no national religion and individuals are free to change religions. By law, Christians converting to Islam are permitted to add Muslim names to their Christian names on their official documents.

Neither the Catholic Church nor the Protestant Reformed Church of Equatorial Guinea, the two largest religious groups in the country, are required to register with the MJRAPI. The only religious group to receive state funding for operating educational institutions is the Catholic Church.

Some longstanding religious groups, such as Methodists, Muslims, and Baha’is, hold permanent presidential authorizations and are not required to renew their registrations with the MJRAPI. Newer groups and other denominations are required to renew their registration annually. To register, religious groups at the congregational level must submit a written application to the MJRAPI director general of religious affairs. Groups seeking to register must supply detailed information about the leadership and membership of the group, construction plans for religious buildings, property ownership documents, accreditations, and a mission statement from the religious organization’s headquarters, and must pay a fee of 500,000 Central African francs (CFA francs) ($840). In addition, all leaders of churches must present a certificate of theology or religious studies from an internationally recognized institution of higher education, and the National University of Equatorial Guinea (UNGE) must issue an equivalent certificate for them. The director general of religious affairs adjudicates these applications and may order an inspection by the MJRAPI before processing. The government may fine or shut down unregistered groups.

The law requires a permit for door-to-door proselytizing.

An MJRAPI decree specifies that any religious activities taking place outside the hours of 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. or outside of registered places of worship require preauthorization from the ministry. The decree prohibits religious acts or preaching within private residences if those acts involve persons who do not live there. Foreign religious representatives or authorities must obtain advance permission from the MJRAPI to lead or speak at religious activities, and sometimes must provide the text of their remarks for MJRAPI approval in advance. Such permission is not required simply to attend services. The MJRAPI permission is usually granted for the duration of the foreign religious representative’s visit to the country. The decree exempts the Catholic Church.

The government recognizes official documents issued by authorized domestic or foreign religious groups, such as birth certificates and marriage certificates.

The constitution states individuals are free to study religion in schools and may not be forced to study a faith other than their own. Catholic religious classes are part of the public school curriculum, but such study may be replaced by non-Catholic religious study or by a recess with a note from a leader of another religious group.

There are several Catholic schools. Protestant groups, including the Reformed Church, Seventh-day Adventists, Assemblies of God, Methodists, Baptists, and other Christians, operate primary and secondary schools. These schools must be registered with the government and fulfill standard curriculum requirements.

Most foreigners, including foreign evangelical Christian missionaries, are required to obtain residency permits to remain in the country. Applicants must pay 400,000 CFA francs ($680) every two years for such residency permits (which are separate from group registration permits) and renew their permits annually. The residency permit fee for foreign missionaries is the same as for other foreigners. Catholic missionaries are exempt from the residency permit requirement.

By law, the National Day of Prayer, usually celebrated on the first Sunday in April, is an annual event.

The country is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

GOVERNMENT PRACTICES

Ruben Maye Nsue, an ordained Pentecostal pastor, former ambassador, and former Minister of Justice, remained imprisoned in Oveng Asem, a high security facility which also houses political prisoners. Maye was arrested in 2022 reportedly in reaction to a sermon he preached condemning the “tyranny” of the government. Sources stated he was tried and sentenced in secret. Maye, other inmates, local activists, and Pentecostal pastors continued to say he continued to be mistreated in detention, including extended periods of solitary confinement, lack of access to food or water, and insufficient medical care. Maye had been pastor of the Prophetic Ministry of the Shadow of Christ Church. The MJRAPI issued a decree in 2022 barring Maye from holding church services and serving as a minister of worship, pastor, or in any similar position because of what the ministry said were his inflammatory statements against government officials and what the ministry said were calls for violence and disorder.

Minister of Justice, Religious Affairs, and Penitentiary Institutions Sergio Abeso, who took office in February, continued to enforce the 2021 registration requirements for religious groups. Leaders of evangelical Christian churches continued to say that the regulations adversely affected them disproportionately, because Catholic churches remained exempt from the requirements, Muslim communities operated under a presidential authorization, and other religious communities were too small to bear the administrative and financial cost to register new entities.

Religious groups in the country, especially evangelical and Pentecostal, continued to criticize the government’s registration regulations and practices, including the requirement for a certificate from the UNGE and what they stated was the government’s tendency to announce changes to registration requirements suddenly and without consultation. Some evangelical Christian churches, which lodged a formal complaint with the MJRAPI in 2022 concerning the registration requirements, continued to discuss the requirements with the MJRAPI director general and Minister Abeso throughout the year. They said that because UNGE did not have a theological faculty to offer the certificate required for foreign missionaries, some missionaries and their families had been forced to leave the country. Evangelical Christian leaders also said the MJRAPI enforced regulations inconsistently and “according to a political agenda.” The Federation of Evangelical and Pentecostal churches said that some churches that were reported to the MJRAPI for abusive or inappropriate practices were allowed to operate while other churches that complied with the law and regulations were shut down. Conversely, sources stated that the MJRAPI had more limited influence over the Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformed Church of Equatorial Guinea, which were not required to register, as well as the larger religious groups that held permanent authorizations, since the authorizations stemmed from the President’s office and not from the ministry.

In September, the government ordered the closure of six evangelical and Pentecostal churches because they failed to comply with registration requirements. In addition, local Malabo authorities and local communities registered numerous complaints about the six churches. One church leader said these ranged from noise and nuisance complaints about church activities to accusations of rape, gender-based violence, and child abuse carried out against church members by church leaders. The church leader said the complaints were not filed officially nor investigated by the MJRAPI; some were based simply on complaints from individuals on social media.

According to evangelical leaders, persistent negative societal views regarding evangelical Christian churches, including views expressed on government-owned media, also hampered some churches’ attempts to reregister. They said because some communities held negative views of evangelical churches, partly based on the media coverage, MJRAPI officials were reluctant to register some churches. During Senate debate in September regarding proposed changes to the law on religious freedom, for example, the government said in a press release that it needed to “protect the people” by combating the “bad practices of cults and religious confessions” including appropriation of members’ property, “terrorism, kidnapping and the trafficking of children.” The Senate recommended updating the census of religious groups operating in the country and the locations of their churches, closing any religious facilities that did not permit inspection by government officials or did not comply with the law on religious freedom, suspending the registration of all citizens or foreigners who did not have the required certificate from the UNGE, determining ways to prevent church members and their heirs from being “deceived” into giving their property to a religious group, better regulating the submission of civil or criminal violations by religious groups to the appropriate government authorities, and prohibiting the media from broadcasting “misleading advertising for evangelization campaigns.” The recommendations were transmitted to the executive branch for action. According to various sources, the Senate recommendations, if adopted, likely would restrict the ability of evangelical, Pentecostal, and other minority religious groups to perform their religious practices.

Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians continued to report that residency permits were prohibitively expensive, leading some missionaries to risk the consequences of not obtaining or renewing their permits while they remained in the country. Local police reportedly enforced the requirement with threats of deportation and requested a small bribe as an alternative. The president of the national federation of evangelical and Pentecostal churches reported the voluntary departure during the year of some missionaries from Colombia, Mexico, Brazil and Spain due to the difficulty and cost of obtaining residency permits, but precise figures were not available. There were no reports of missionaries being deported during the year. Catholic missionaries did not require residency permits to remain in the country.

While the government continued routinely to grant permission for religious groups to hold activities outside of places of worship, with the exception of private homes, it usually denied permits to hold activities outside of the prescribed hours of 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., according to religious leaders. Authorities permitted all religious groups, except the churches closed during the year, to hold services provided they finished before 9 p.m. and did not disturb the peace.

Catholic masses remained a normal part of all major ceremonial functions and were held, for example, on Independence Day (October 12) and the President’s Birthday holiday (June 5). Catholic leaders were the only religious leaders to regularly meet publicly with the highest-level government officials.

Some non-Catholics who worked for the government continued to report that their supervisors strongly encouraged participation in religious activities related to their government positions, including attending Catholic masses. Government officials stated that it was expected that they attend major events such as the President’s Birthday Mass at nearby Catholic churches.

The government allowed the Muslim community to celebrate Eid al-Adha in Malabo Stadium in June.