The government of São Toméand Príncipe has filed a criminal complaint against a researcher who conducted a study that concluded that 58% of school-aged boys and 43% of girls drink alcohol.

The researcher from University of Lisbon in Portugal was quoted as concluding that children drank more alcohol than milk in São Tomé.

The government accuses Isabel Santiago of “irreparably damaging the country’s reputation”, and demanded that the researcher publicly apologise to all São Toméans, especially the children.

The researcher had said that the lack of a civic education policy was one of the contributing factors, and that expectant mothers “consume alcohol during pregnancy and as a result their babies are born with withdrawal syndrome”.

She also said that mothers “out of ignorance give alcohol to six or seven year-old children on an empty stomach, to kill worms”.