Zimbabwe have reportedly sent an anti-terrorism team to the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations host nation Equatorial Guinea ahead of the tournament kick off on Saturday at Bata.
The Herald said on Friday that Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema requested his Zimbabwean counterpart Robert Mugabe to send the elite team, which will be “providing VIP security, intelligence as well as manning key institutions”.
According to the report Equatorial Guinea will cater for all expenses and the team will be well-armed for any chaos or threat during the continental showpiece.
Mugabe developed a very close relationship with Nguema in 2008 when Zimbabwe accepted to extradite British mercenary Simon Mann to Malabo, where he was accused of plotting to overthrow Nguema’s government.
According to political reports, Mann had already spent over three years in prison in Harare. He was later sentenced to 34 years in jail in Malabo but released on humanitarian grounds in 2009.
Meanwhile teams that have been arriving at the Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea have been forced to search for places to sleep because of a lack of hotel rooms.
Congo coach Claude Le Roy narrated to BBC on Thursday.
There are not enough places for my staff and it’s even difficult to find rooms for the players. The electricity is terrible, everything is exposed. I wanted to wash my hands. There was no water. Some of my assistants went around to see if there were rooms available somewhere but it seems very very difficult.
This will be the 30th edition of the tournament which starts on Saturday and ends on Sunday, 8 February.