Salvador Ondo Nkumu
Salvador Ondo Nkumu is an Equatoguinean politician and former judge. He has served as Minister of Justice since 2018 and previously held the job from 2008 to 2011.
During the 2004 coup attempt, he postponed the trial of 14 suspected foreign mercenaries for 30 days to allow more investigations. He later announced the verdicts, including 34 years for South African arms dealer Nick du Toit (who was later pardoned) and 63 years in absentia for exiled opposition leader Severo Moto. The case drew international attention because of Mark Thatcher’s involvement.
In August 2010, Ondo Nkumu led a four-day inauguration seminar for the Institute of Judicial Practice of Equatorial Guinea to publicly present the institute and celebrate the judiciary’s eighteenth anniversary.
In January 2011, after a cabinet reshuffle, he was replaced as Minister of Justice by Francisco Javier Ngomo. Ondo Nkumu then became President of the Constitutional Court and oversaw the validation of the 2017 legislative election results, in which the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea won 99 of 100 seats. He was reappointed as Minister of Justice in February 2018.
He helped open a new prison in Oveng Ansem on July 27, 2018, as part of a program to modernize the national penitentiary system, aiming for maximum security, humane treatment, and rehabilitation. President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo said the program was partly in response to concerns about prison conditions.
In October 2019, he met Morocco’s justice minister in Marrakesh during the second International Justice Conference. In February 2022, he presented the Penal Code bill to the Commission of Justice and Human Rights after its review in the Chamber, as part of a plan to update and nationalize Equatorial Guinea’s legal system. The bill was conceived by President Obiang and builds on a 2009 draft.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 13:15 (CET).