“To ensure the smooth running of the October 12 national holiday, 44th anniversary of our independence, using mobile phones, wearing cropped trousers and flip-flops, carrying knives and drinking alcoholic beverages are banned,” Interior Minister Engonga Nguema Onguene said in a statement read out on state radio Monday.

The ban applies to Mongomo, the native village of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has ruled the small oil-rich west African nation since 1979.

The traditional independence day parade is usually held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea’s island capital, or in the mainland economic capital Bata.

Hundreds of participants, regime officials, security forces and journalists started converging Monday on Obiang’s native village, which is usually home to no more than 7,000 inhabitants.