E Guinea ruling party expels 42

Equatorial Guinea’s ruling party has expelled 42 of its members for their alleged role in a coup bid late last year.

The ruling Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) decided to expel them for their role in the failed December 24 coup, said a resolution passed by the party’s disciplinary committee on Friday.

Those expelled included a former ambassador, at least two former judges and the former head of security for President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Africa’s longest-serving leader.

They had collaborated with “a group of terrorists and mercenaries”, the party resolution said.

In March, the Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS), Equatorial Guinea’s second largest opposition party, said the coup bid had been organised from within the ruling party.

The authorities in the West African country announced in January that they had foiled the coup bid.

Around 30 mercenaries from Chad, the Central African Republic and Sudan were detained in neighbouring Cameroon at the time.

A trial of those involved in the coup plot was due to begin next February, sources close to the regime said, but talks to extradite the mercenaries from Cameroon have not yet been settled.

Obiang seized power in a coup on August 3 1979, ousting his own uncle, Francisco Macias Nguema, who was shot by firing squad.

He survived a coup bid in 2004 when mercenaries thought to have been backed by British financiers tried to oust him. –