Equatorial Guinea Leader Who Foiled Mark Thatcher Sees Off Another Coup
Aislinn Laing
January 4 2018, 12:01am,
The Times
Sir Mark Thatcher backed the 2004 attempt to oust President Obiang
MARK HUTCHINGS/REUTERS
The African state of Equatorial Guinea, which thwarted a coup backed by Baroness Thatcher’s son, has claimed to have stopped a putsch on Christmas Eve, also backed by mercenaries.
The government said that it had foiled the latest attempt to topple President Obiang after foreign mercenaries were deployed by “certain radical opposition parties” to attack the leader who has been in power for 38 years. They were stopped with the help of troops from neighbouring Cameroon, which detained 38 heavily armed men on its border, the government said.
It added that Enrique Nsue Anguesom, Equatorial Guinea’s ambassador to Chad, was being held at a military camp in connection with the attempted takeover, and that weapons and a stockpile of ammunition had been seized and the borders with Gabon and Cameroon reinforced and closed. State TV reported that one of mercenaries had been shot dead yesterday during clashes near the Cameroon border.
Mr Obiang was the alleged target of the Wonga coup launched in 2004 by the British mercenary Simon Mann, whose backers included Sir Mark Thatcher, son of the former prime minister. The latest alleged attempt to end his reign over the nation of 1.2 million people emerged with the arrest by Cameroon of alleged mercenaries found in a bus at the border. Two days later Equatorial Guinea’s ambassador to France said that there had been an “invasion and destabilisation attempt”.
Mr Obiang said that a war was being prepared against his regime because he had “spent a lot of time in power”. The security minister said that the attempted coup took place while Mr Obiang was on holiday in the east of the country.
Mr Obiang came to power in 1979, killing his uncle, President Nguema, by firing squad. He has held power for seven terms, allegedly by rigging elections. Human rights groups and opposition parties say that he maintains a grip through arbitrary arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings.
Last year Mr Obiang’s son, Teodorin, 48, the vice-president, was convicted in absentia in France of using public money to fund an extravagant lifestyle. Teodorin’s Instagram account suggested that he was unworried by the apparent coup. He posted pictures of himself next to a piano in a presidential palace and of G-string clad women dancing to celebrate the new year.
January 4 2018, 12:01am,
The Times
Sir Mark Thatcher backed the 2004 attempt to oust President Obiang
MARK HUTCHINGS/REUTERS
The African state of Equatorial Guinea, which thwarted a coup backed by Baroness Thatcher’s son, has claimed to have stopped a putsch on Christmas Eve, also backed by mercenaries.
The government said that it had foiled the latest attempt to topple President Obiang after foreign mercenaries were deployed by “certain radical opposition parties” to attack the leader who has been in power for 38 years. They were stopped with the help of troops from neighbouring Cameroon, which detained 38 heavily armed men on its border, the government said.
It added that Enrique Nsue Anguesom, Equatorial Guinea’s ambassador to Chad, was being held at a military camp in connection with the attempted takeover, and that weapons and a stockpile of ammunition had been seized and the borders with Gabon and Cameroon reinforced and closed. State TV reported that one of mercenaries had been shot dead yesterday during clashes near the Cameroon border.
Mr Obiang was the alleged target of the Wonga coup launched in 2004 by the British mercenary Simon Mann, whose backers included Sir Mark Thatcher, son of the former prime minister. The latest alleged attempt to end his reign over the nation of 1.2 million people emerged with the arrest by Cameroon of alleged mercenaries found in a bus at the border. Two days later Equatorial Guinea’s ambassador to France said that there had been an “invasion and destabilisation attempt”.
Mr Obiang said that a war was being prepared against his regime because he had “spent a lot of time in power”. The security minister said that the attempted coup took place while Mr Obiang was on holiday in the east of the country.
Mr Obiang came to power in 1979, killing his uncle, President Nguema, by firing squad. He has held power for seven terms, allegedly by rigging elections. Human rights groups and opposition parties say that he maintains a grip through arbitrary arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings.
Last year Mr Obiang’s son, Teodorin, 48, the vice-president, was convicted in absentia in France of using public money to fund an extravagant lifestyle. Teodorin’s Instagram account suggested that he was unworried by the apparent coup. He posted pictures of himself next to a piano in a presidential palace and of G-string clad women dancing to celebrate the new year.
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