Equatorial Guinea has accused French telecoms giant, Orange SA, of “fraudulently” giving out its “.gq” domain name to the Netherlands, thus forcing the African country’s institutions to pay to use the domain.
The country’s Vice President, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, who made the accusations on Saturday, said officials in Equatorial Guinea had “discovered that the French from the Orange company engaged in fraudulent manipulation by ceding our domain .gq to the Dutch”.
The .gq domain name, according to local media, was launched in 1997 by Equatorial Guinean mobile operator, Getesa, but was reported to be prone to spam, phishing and other malicious use.
While speaking at a press conference, Nguema said:
“Now, we have to pay them to use our own domain, which makes it challenging to set up an institutional website with .gq for the country,” he said at a press conference.
“What have we done to France for it to plunder African countries in this manner? We are once again hindered by their trickery. The West should stop taking advantage of Africa,” he added.
This is not the first time the son of long-serving President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, has accused European countries of various infractions in his country.
He has previously accused the United States, Spain and France of interfering in his country’s internal affairs.
In one of such instances, a French court in 2020, fined him €30 million for embezzling public funds, giving him a suspended jail term and ordering the confiscation of his assets.