Africa's longest-serving president thwarts 'coup' efforts

pulse-ghana admin 14:34 - 03 January 2018

Equatorial Guinea security officers say a coup in December 2017 was effectively thwarted to save the presidency of Ngueme

Equatorial Guinea said it had thwarted “a coup” in late December mounted by mercenaries who sought to attack President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

In a statement read on state-owned radio, Security Minister Nicolas Obama Nchama said: “Mercenaries… were recruited by Equatorial Guinean militants from certain radical opposition parties with the support of certain powers.”

On December 27, Cameroonian officials arrested 38 heavily-armed men at the border.

Equatorial Guinea’s ambassador to France, Miguel Oyono Ndong Mifumu, referred to the incident as an “invasion and destabilization attempt”.

The suspects, taken into custody in a bus on the border, had rocket launchers, rifles and a stockpile of ammunition.

Ngueme has been president for more than 38 years after he took over in a coup on August 3, 1979, overthrowing his own uncle, Francisco Macias Nguema, who was shot by firing squad.

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