Two men deported by the Trump administration to Equatorial Guinea — Ahmed Soliman, an Egyptian national, and Samson Birhane, an Eritrean — were bound, hooded, beaten and thrown down a flight of stairs by police at Hotel Bamy, a run-down Malabo (capital of Equatorial Guinea, a small oil-rich authoritarian state in central Africa) establishment used to hold US deportees, before being transferred to a local prison. Witnesses say the assault, which occurred on 11 September, was triggered by the men filming and reporting on the dangerous conditions inside the hotel to lawyers and journalists. Around 29 other deportees remain trapped at the site, with guards confiscating phones, blocking legal access and warning detainees they could "disappear from the earth" — raising urgent concern from human rights advocates who say both Washington and Malabo must be held accountable.