31, December 2017
Foiled Equatorial Guinea coup, Cameroonian mercenaries complicit 0
Authorities in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea say they foiled an overnight attempt to overthrow the government of Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasago – Africa’s longest serving leader.
The attempt as reported by the French news portal Jeune Afrique took place overnight from Wednesday December 27 to Thursday December 28.
Even though details of the incident are sketchy, there is said to be heightened security measures across the country with reports of swoops on persons believed to be involved.
Some 31 mercenaries were also reported to have been arrested in southern Cameroon as they attempted to enter the country apparently to help execute the overthrow. This is the second such attempt, the first took place in 2004.
Some political and security watchers are, however, calling the report a possible move by Malabo to purge the military and other security agencies of unwanted elements. Opposition members are also claiming members are being picked up arbitrarily.
“The opposition Citizens’ Party for Innovation (CI) has claimed multiple incidents of electoral fraud, and at least 50 opposition activists have been detained at the Evinayong prison (central Equatorial Guinea) since the election.
“A hundred others have been seeking refuge for the past several days at the party headquarters, located in the Nkolo Mbong district of the economic capital Bata, to avoid ongoing nocturnal arrests being carried out at opposition activists’ homes,” GardaWorld, a security website reported.
Source: Africa News
31, December 2017
Kenya: Head-on collision between bus, truck kills 30 0
Thirty people were killed and 16 injured early Sunday morning in a head-on collision between a bus and a truck on a road in central Kenya, police said.
“We have 30 dead,” said Rift Valley traffic police chief Zero Arome of the 3 AM (00.00 GMT) accident close to Nakuru town. “All the bodies have been removed from the wreckage and injured people taken to hospital.”
The accident occurred close to a notorious stretch on the Nakuru-Eldoret highway when a bus travelling from Busia, in western Kenya, collided with a truck coming from Nakuru.
Police said the death toll for that stretch of road has now reached 100 this month alone.
Arome said the drivers of both vehicles were among the dead, as well as a three-year-old child, while the injured had been taken to a Nakuru hospital.
One survivor, speaking from his hospital bed, said he had been asleep at the back of the bus when the collision happened.
“All I heard was a loud bang and screams from all over,” he said. “I was seated at the back and was helped out after some time because my legs were stuck. It is by the grace of God that I am alive. I saw many people dead and their bodies mutilated.”
Official statistics show that around 3,000 people die annually in road accidents in Kenya.
(Source: AFP)