Cameroon police 'seized colonel'

Officials in Cameroon have arrested two policemen accused of handing a colonel from Equatorial Guinea to that country's intelligence service.

The two men are suspected of kidnapping Col Cipriano Nguema Mba and driving him to Equatorial Guinea's embassy in Cameroon's capital, Yaounde.

Col Mba faces a 30-year sentence over an alleged 2004 coup plot against President Teodoro Obiang.

Cameroonian officials said Col Mba had been missing since earlier this month.

One official said Col Mba had registered with the UN's refugee agency in Yaounde after fleeing there in 2003.

The two Cameroonian police officers have been charged with arresting a refugee and for "complicity with a foreign intelligence service," according to a statement from Cameroon's government.

Equatorial Guinea, an oil-rich former Spanish colony, has been ruled by President Obiang since he seized power from his uncle in 1979.