Former SAS officer led a group of 70 who attempted to overthrow Equatorial Guinea’s president
Simon Mann, an Eton and Sandhurst-educated ex-SAS officer, who led a botched coup involving Margaret Thatcher’s son to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea, has died aged 72.
Mann led a group of 70 fellow mercenaries who were arrested in Zimbabwe in 2004 for attempting to topple Equatorial Guinea’s despotic president, Teodoro Obiang.
Continue reading...More governments seeking to keep millions of people offline amid conflicts, protests and political instability
Digital blackouts reached a record high in 2024 in Africa as more governments sought to keep millions of citizens off the internet than in any other period over the last decade.
A report released by the internet rights group Access Now and #KeepItOn, a coalition of hundreds of civil society organisations worldwide, found there were 21 shutdowns in 15 African countries, surpassing the existing record of 19 shutdowns in 2020 and 2021.
Continue reading...President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo signs new penal code for central African country
Equatorial Guinea, one of the world’s most authoritarian countries, has abolished the death penalty, according to state television, which cited a new law signed by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
Capital punishment was “totally abolished” in the oil-rich central African country after the president signed a new penal code, the vice-president tweeted on Monday.
Continue reading...The scale of destruction from a series of explosions in Equatorial Guinea's port city Bata has been revealed in new satellite and drone images. Blasts tore through a military base of 7 March, killing over 100 people and injuring more than 600. The images show rows of flattened buildings and areas populated with trees destroyed by the explosions.
Continue reading...A series of large explosions at a military base rocked the city of Bata in Equatorial Guinea on Sunday, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 600, state media reported. The blasts were caused by the ‘negligent handling of dynamite’, according to a statement from the president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. Local television showed groups of people pulling bodies from piles of rubble and carrying some away wrapped in bedsheets
Continue reading...Hundreds of people also wounded in explosions that president has blamed on negligent handling of dynamite
At least 20 people have been killed and more than 600 wounded in a huge series of explosions at a military barracks in Equatorial Guinea, state television has reported.
The blasts were due to the “negligent handling of dynamite”, according to a statement from the president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, read out on TVGE. He said the explosions took place at 4pm in the barracks in the neighbourhood of Mondong Nkuantoma in Bata. He said the impact had damaged almost all the buildings in the country’s main city.
Continue reading...Luxury cars seized from vice president Teodorin Obiang Nguema are expected to fetch $18m at Geneva auction
A collection of luxury cars seized from Equatorial Guinea’s vice president, Teodorin Obiang Nguema, will be auctioned off in Switzerland and are estimated to bring in 18.5m Swiss francs ($18.7m).
“This is an exceptional sale,” Philip Kantor, of British auctioneers Bonhams, told AFP. “It’s a private collection of supercars, with very low mileage.”
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