Security services from Cameroon reportedly helped prevent an alleged coup attempt against Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema late last month.

Equatorial Guinea’s Security Minister Nicolas Obama Nchama said the plot involving mercenaries was prevented by an operation carried out “in collaboration with the Cameroon security services”. He claimed the “mercenaries were recruited by Equatorial Guinean militants from certain radical opposition parties with the support of certain powers”.

Cameroon’s security officials detailed 38 armed men on the border with Equatorial Guinea.