Mauritius President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim resigns over credit card scandal

Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, Africa’s only female head of state, submitted her resignation for the “stability of the country,” her lawyer, Yousouf Mohammed, said in an interview with local news agency ION.

He also said that she will leave office on March 23 after a scandal involving the use of an NGO credit card. She’s been president since 2015, first woman to do so in Mauritian history.

A scientist and biologist of international renown, she had been under pressure since the Mauritian daily L’Express published bank documents showing that Gurib- Fakim had used a credit card given to her by the London-based Planet Earth Institute to buy clothing and jewelery worth thousands of dollars.

She is accused of spending up to $26,000.

The NGO is funded by the controversial Angolan billionaire Alvaro Sobrinho who is himself being investigated for alleged corruption in Portugal.

In 2017, he was allowed to set up an investment bank in Mauritius, which prompted critics to accuse the government of playing favoritism.