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🇵🇾 Paraguay /Conflict & Security

Equatorial Guinea Vice President Denies Alleged Coup Attempt

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire Named sources Ongoing story
  • Equatorial Guinea’s vice president denied a Jeune Afrique report alleging that authorities had foiled a coup attempt.
  • Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue said no foreign intelligence service had warned of such a plot and denied that weapons had been seized at Bata port.
  • The opposition platform named in the report also rejected the allegations, while the government criticized the publication’s account.

Equatorial Guinea’s vice president has categorically denied a report claiming that the country’s authorities thwarted a coup attempt. Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue called the report by the French weekly Jeune Afrique “completely false.”

In a statement, he said the government had received no alert from Russian, U.S., Chinese or any other intelligence service about the alleged plot. He also denied that authorities had seized a weapons container at the port of Bata.

Nguema Obiang accused Jeune Afrique of pursuing political and economic interests aimed at damaging the country’s image. He said the publication had developed a pattern of controversy and conspiracy stories about Equatorial Guinea, calling it “cheap press” rather than serious journalism.

We have received no alert from Russian, U.S., Chinese or any other intelligence service about the alleged plot described in the article. Nor has any weapons container been seized at the port of Bata.

· Teodoro Nguema Obiang MangueThe vice president denied the central claims in the Jeune Afrique report.

The denial followed a report alleging that Malabo had stopped a coup plot organized since June with help from Russian intelligence and Africa Corps personnel. The magazine said a weapons cache had been seized in a container at Bata port and identified members of the Coalition of Opposition for the Restoration of a Democratic State, known as Cored, as organizers.

Leaders of the opposition platform rejected those accusations as well, saying the government had invented the allegations to discredit them. Equatorial Guinea has faced several reported coup attempts since independence from Spain in 1968, including a 2004 incursion by British mercenaries and an aborted attempt near the Cameroon border in December 2017. Human rights organizations have also described the country as among the world’s most corrupt and repressive. President Teodoro Obiang has governed since 1979.

Jeune Afrique is becoming a broken record when it comes to Equatorial Guinea. It seems to have a permanent need to manufacture controversies and conspiracies. That is not serious journalism; it is cheap press.

· Teodoro Nguema Obiang MangueHe criticized the French publication after rejecting its report.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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