Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Harare (Agenzia Fides)- Equatorial Guinea and Zimbabwe are negotiating an oil agreement to help Zimbabwe face a serious fuel shortage.
Equatorial Guinea sources say the agreement is purely commercial, nothing to do with the present trial of British mercenary Simon Mann, charged with being part of a plot to overthrow the government of President Teodoro Nguema. The coup was forestalled when the mercenaries were captured in Zimbabwe in 2004. Simon Man, a recruiter of the mercenary group, was recently extradited to Equatorial Guinea.
Government sources in Zimbabwe said an agreement with the government of Equatorial Guinea has been signed. President Mugabe confirmed the agreement during his electoral campaign in Bulawayo, the country's second largest city. Inflation in Zimbabwe is racing: the recent exchange rate is 30 billion Zimbabwe dollars to 1 US dollar.
Equatorial Guinea is one of Africa's largest oil producers and President Theodore Nguema Obiang has been in power since 1979. In view of the protested second round of presidential elections in Zimbabwe, the arrival of a cargo of oil at a " political price" is a mouthful of oxygen for the regime of Mugabe, increasingly isolated at the international level. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 24/6/2008 righe 20 parole 276)
