The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Equatorial Guinea’s leader Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasaogo today paid a one-day working visit to Uganda, the second time in a year he has been to Kampala.
Cooperation pacts in defence, security and oil were among the key issues on the agenda for Obiang, whose country recently said they had thwarted an attempted coup.
The oil-rich country was put on alert earlier this month after reports of a putsch mounted by foreign mercenaries on December 24, according to government officials.
Obiang who last visited in April last year for the joint oil and gas convention and regional expo, met President Yoweri Museveni at State House Entebbe.
“In our bilateral discussions, we directed our respective ministers to expedite implementation of cooperation pacts in energy and oil, defence and security, trade, industrialization, agriculture and transport,” said Museveni at the end of the one-day visit.
“I have apprised him of the pillars that enhance the cooperation between Uganda and Equatorial Guinea, among which are bilateral relations, trade and investment.”
In August, the people of Equatorial Guinea presented the highest honour of their country, the Great Collar of Independence Award, to Uganda President Yoweri Museveni.
Obiang is Africa’s longest-serving leader.
Coup fears
Obiang on Tuesday dismissed the country’s ambassador to Chad, weeks after authorities said they had thwarted an attempted coup.
Ambassador Enrique Nsue Anguesomo was removed due to “irregularities committed in the exercise of his functions,” and stripped him of his rank of police colonel, according to two decrees read out on state television.
The dismissal comes after the oil-rich country was put on alert earlier this month after reports of a putsch mounted by foreign mercenaries on December 24, according to government officials.
State broadcaster TGVE also reported clashes with “mercenaries” near the border with Cameroon, but that they had been stopped.
Anguesomo was arrested in Ebibeyin on December 30 while on holiday, according to one of his relatives.
He is being held at Balack Beach Central Prison in Malabo, the capital, according to security sources.
Obiang, 75, seized power in 1979 and has faced a string of coup attempts during nearly four decades in office.
Critics accuse him of brutal repression of opponents, electoral fraud and corruption.
Formerly a small Spanish colony, Equatorial Guinea has become one of sub-Sahara’s biggest oil producers but a large proportion of its 1.2 million population lives in poverty.
