Malabo, Equatorial Guinea
Sixty-four mercenaries discovered in a plane in Zimbabwe were on their way to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea, one of the mercenaries said this week. Mercenary Nick du Toit, a South African, said the plan was to force President Teodoro Obiang into exile and let the opposition leader take over. Obiang, who came to power in the 1980s by shooting the previous dictator, is ill, and tensions have arisen in his family over succession. The president’s brother, a friend of du Toit’s, opposes a plan to hand power to Obiang’s son, an international playboy and aspiring rap star. The tiny nation is Africa’s third-largest oil producer, after Nigeria and Angola, but the oil wealth enriches only a handful of people close to the president.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Scorching hot sauces that pack a punchThe Week Recommends The best sauces to tingle your lips and add a fiery kick to your food
-
Syria’s strange post-Assad electionThe Explainer Sunday’s limited vote ‘suited the phase Syria is undergoing’, says interim president
-
Why did the China spying case collapse?Today’s Big Question Unwillingness to call China an ‘enemy’ apparently scuppered espionage trial
