Equatorial Guinea has launched a dragnet for “mercenaries” behind a bid to overthrow President Theodoro Obiang, Africa’s longest-serving leader, a senior government official said on Friday. The manhunt, the official said, is focussed on “the Ebibeyin zone and other forests nearby,” located near the border with Cameroon and Cameroon. Obiang, 75, who seized power in 1979, has faced a string of coup attempts during nearly four decades in office. They were “recruited by Equatorial Guinean militants from certain radical opposition parties with the support of certain powers”, he alleged. Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony, has become one of sub-Sahara’s biggest oil producers but a large proportion of its 1.2 million population lives in poverty.

Source: The Guardian January 05, 2018 11:37 UTC