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

Authorities have tried to curb the viral spread of the sex tapes involving Baltasar Ebang Engonga, who is related to the country’s long-serving president.

But they have unleased a torrent of reactions and memes online, including from Nigerian singer Davido and France’s rapper Kaaris.

#BaltasarEbangEngonga was trending alongside the US presidential election as the most discussed themes online.

The married director of the National Financial Investigation Agency is seen with different partners — among them, wives of prominent officials — including at his office in the finance ministry.

The videos were released on social networks while Ebang Engonga was remanded in custody at Malabo’s Black Beach prison in a case of embezzlement of public funds.

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

State TVGE television had a day earlier broadcast the angry complaints of a woman whose face was blurred out on screen, saying she was one of his partners.

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

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

The videos were filmed on unknown dates and in different places.

Their release led to the authorities giving 24 hours’ notice to the telecommunications ministry, regulator and telephone companies “to curb the distribution of pornographic videos that are flooding social networks”.

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

It was even referred to by the president of the Kenyan parliament during a debate on Tuesday.

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

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