| A plot to topple Equatorial Guinea's leader was funded by "enemy powers" and multinational companies operating within sub-Saharan Africa's third biggest oil producer, its president said.
In a speech reported by state media, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo thanked South Africa and Angola for warning him of the plot but said other nations had helped conspire to usurp him with an exiled politician living in Spain. Some 15 suspected mercenaries, the majority South Africans, were arrested in the former Spanish colony late on Monday after a widespread clampdown on foreign nationals. Obiang said the 15 were linked to men being held in Zimbabwe. The authorities there detained more than 60 men on Sunday after seizing a U.S.-registered cargo plane which officials said was carrying military equipment. The detainees, mainly South Africans, Angolans and Namibians, were being held on suspicion of being mercenaries. The discovery of massive oil reserves has boosted Equatorial Guinea's economy by as much as 70 percent a year but critics say the new-found wealth has not been shared evenly. |
Is it ever?
What's going on? An ill-fated sweep by multinationals?
Middle East
Venezuela
Haiti
Zimbabwe
Equatorial Guinea
Am I missing anybody?
| The International Monetary Fund has said there needs to be more transparency in managing oil revenues, but Obiang, accused of hoarding the money, says they are a state secret.
The country is mostly run by members of Obiang's clan but bitter, long-running family feuds mean tension is running high within the ruling the elite. A number of opposition politicians also live in exile in Spain and have formed a government-in-exile headed by Severo Moto -- the man Obiang claims was behind the plot. Moto has rejected the accusation. |
And, as I was saying about the Zimbabwe deal (that those captured would probably regret their choice of occupation)...
| Zimbabwe Wednesday threatened to execute a band of "foreign mercenaries" detained in Harare, and Equatorial Guinea accused them of being part of a plot funded by "enemy powers" and multinationals.
...The plane's operator, based in Britain's Channel Islands, insisted the seized aircraft, sold by a firm in the United States just a week ago, had been flying security men from South Africa to guard mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It declined to name the customers it was acting for. Asked about the accusation by Equatorial Guinea, Charles Burrows, a senior executive of Logo Logistics Ltd, said on Tuesday: "I haven't the foggiest idea of what they're talking about." Zimbabwe, bitterly at odds in recent years with the United States and old European colonial powers, said the plot involving the "mercenaries" had been an elaborate one. "Apparently this was not one mission... after the diversion in Equatorial Guinea they were going to the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo)," Mudenge said. |
Mine guards. Sure they were.
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