MALABO, Equatorial Guinea (AFP) – A high-ranking official in Equatorial Guinea has been fired after a series of videos showing him having sex with women – including the wives of top officials – were shared online.

Authorities have tried to stem the viral spread of sex tapes involving Baltasar Ebang Engonga, who is related to the country’s longtime president.

But they unleashed a torrent of backlash and memes online, including from Nigerian singer Davido and French rapper Kaaris.

#BaltasarEbangEngonga trended alongside the US presidential election as the most talked about topic online.

The married director of the National Financial Investigation Agency is seen with various partners – among them the spouses of prominent officials – including at his office in the Ministry of Finance.

The videos went viral on social media while Ebang Engonga was remanded at the Black Beach Prison in Malabo in a case of embezzlement of public funds.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has been in power since 1979, ordered Ebang Engonga to be removed from office in a decree issued late Wednesday.

State broadcaster TVGE aired a day earlier the angry complaints of a woman whose face was blurred on screen, saying she was one of his partners.

“I would like to know where these videos circulating on social media came from, I would like to know why he kept them without my consent,” she said, adding that she felt “humiliated”.

She said that while she had given consent for them to be filmed, she believed the images were “immediately deleted” afterwards.

The clips were shot on unknown dates and in different locations.

Their release prompted authorities to give a 24-hour notice to the telecommunications ministry, regulators and phone companies “to stop the distribution of pornographic videos flooding social media”.

However, the viral trend has transcended the authoritarian, closed West African country, sparking songs, dances and photo montages.

The speaker of the Kenyan parliament referred to this very thing during a debate on Tuesday.

Nicknamed “Bello” because of his good looks, Ebang Engonga, who is in his 50s, is the son of Baltasar Engonga Edjo, the chairman of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community Commission.

Chief prosecutor Anatolio Nzang Nguema said that if medical examinations revealed that Ebang Engonga was “infected with a sexually transmitted disease”, he would be prosecuted for an offense against “public health”.