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Team off to save SA men
17/03/2004 16:48 - (SA)
Libreville - A South African delegation on Wednesday left Gabon for Equatorial Guinea following the arrest of 15 suspected mercenaries accused of plotting to overthrow the regime there, an embassy source said.
The team was led by ambassador to Gabon Mokgethi Samuel Monaisa and included officials who had come from Pretoria. They would have talks with the authorities in Equatorial Guinea and "hope to see the detained people", said the source who asked not to be named.
The alleged coup leader, Nick du Toit, has "confessed" on Equatorial Guinean television to plotting to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has ruled the central African country since 1979.
The embassy believes there are seven South Africans among the men whose arrests Obiang announced on March 9, but the Equatorial-Guinean regime has named only Du Toit.
The alleged soldiers of fortune in the small oil-rich nation have been linked to a group of some 70 suspected mercenaries detained in Zimbabwe for more than a week.
The Zimbabwean government said they were on their way to Equatorial Guinea to stage a coup and all have been formally charged in a process that was finished in court on Tuesday.
- AFP
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