Mugabe barters Maize for fuel

HARARE - PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe gave Equatorial Guinea president Theodore Obiang Nguema over 50 tonnes of maize when the visiting leader came to Zimbabwe last month and the maize was flown to Malabo, Guinea on an Air Zimbabwe long haul Boeing 767, ZimDaily can reveal.

The maize was meant to convince Nguema to provide Zimbabwe with three months supply of fuel but Nguema is said to have made a condition clear to Mugabe before he left, that he deliver Simon Mann or no fuel.

Mann was arrested in 2004 and was alleged to have been leading a group of 76 mercenraies to Equatorial Guinea to depose Nguema who seized power in the 70s after murdering his uncle who was president.....

The major problem for Mugabe is that Zimbabwe has no extradition treaty with the oil rich Equatorial Guinea making it difficult to extradite Mann.

The revelations come at a time when over nine million Zimbabweans are facing starvation after governments disastrous and failed land policies which have resulted in widespread hunger in the former breadbasket of the SADC region.