Russia’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, says it has asked Google to take measures to prevent the advertising of “illegal mass events” on its video-hosting site, YouTube.

Roskomnadzor said on Sunday that it had sent a letter to Google saying that Russia would consider it interference in its sovereign affairs and a hostile influence should the U.S.-based tech giant fail to respond to the request.

The announcement comes a day after tens of thousands of opposition supporters gathered outside Moscow’s center for a sanctioned rally demanding fair municipal elections.

Hundreds of people later gathered in more central parts of the city, prompting police to detain more than 250 people, according to the independent watchdog OVD-Info.

OVD-Info said 79 people were also detained in St. Petersburg, 13 in Rostov-on-Don, two in Bryansk, and two more in Syktyvkar as “solidarity” rallies attracted smaller crowds there and in other cities.

Earlier on Sunday, Andrei Klimov, head of the Committee for the Defense of State Sovereignty in Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, said that “foreign opponents took advantage of information and computer technologies in order to manipulate Russian citizens who attended” the unauthorized Moscow protests, TASS news agency reported.

In July, Roskomnadzor fined Google 700,000 rubles ($11,000) for failing to censor content blacklisted by the agency in accordance with strict Russian Internet laws.

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EL PASO, TEXAS — More than 100 people marched through the Texas border city of El Paso on Saturday, denouncing racism and calling for stronger gun laws one week after 22 people were killed in a mass shooting that authorities say was carried out by a man targeting Mexicans.  
 
Chanting “Gun reform now,” ” El Paso strong” and “Aqui estamos y no nos vamos” — Spanish for “Here we are and we are not leaving” — the marchers included Hispanic, white and black people dressed in white to symbolize peace and carrying 22 white wooden crosses to represent the victims of the shooting at an El Paso Walmart. 
 
The man charged in with capital murder in the attack, Patrick Crusius, 21, told investigators he targeted Mexicans at the store with an AK-47 rifle, an El Paso detective said in an arrest affidavit. Federal prosecutors have said they’re weighing hate-crime charges. 
 
Jessica Coca Garcia, who was among those wounded in the shooting, spoke to those gathered at the League of United Latin American Citizens’ “March for a United America.” 
 
“Racism is something I always wanted to think didn’t exist. Obviously, it does,” Coca Garcia said after rising from a wheelchair. Bandages covered gunshot wounds to her leg. 
 
“I love you, El Paso,” she said, her voice cracking. “This is where I’m going to stay.”  
 
Former U.S. Representative Beto O’Rourke, who is seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, also attended and spoke to the crowd.  
 
O’Rourke, who is from El Paso, has blamed President Donald Trump’s rhetoric for spreading fear and hate, leading Trump to tweet that O’Rourke should “be quiet.” 

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Written by Eugen Tomiuc with reporting by RFE/RL’s Romanian Service, Hotnews.ro, G4media.ro, and Digi24.ro. 

Romanians rallied in Bucharest and other cities across the country Saturday to mark the first anniversary of a massive anti-corruption protest that the government violently quelled. 

The demonstrations came amid public outrage over the authorities’ response to the kidnapping and killing last month of a 15-year-old girl, a case that revealed deep flaws in the police system of the European Union and NATO member state. 
 
About 20,000 people turned up for a rally outside government headquarters in central Bucharest, filling much of Victoria Square into the evening, according to G4media.ro. 
 
Protests had also been urged over social media for Brasov, Cluj, Constanta, Iasi and other large cities, under slogans such as, “We don’t forget what you did last summer,” “We’re watching you” and “Reset Romania.”  

2018 crackdown 
 
Last year, about 100,000 Romanians, many of them expatriates, gathered on Aug. 10 in front of the same government building to protest the leftist government’s moves to reverse anti-graft reforms and weaken the judiciary in one of the EU’s most corrupt countries. 
 
Riot police then used water cannons and tear gas in a display of violence unseen since the early 1990s. 
 
Television footage of protesters and bystanders with hands up being chased and beaten with batons sparked fury across the country and prompted condemnation from the EU and the United States. More than 450 people needed medical assistance and one person reportedly died after the crackdown. 
 
Some observers cited the Aug. 10, 2018, violence, as well as the “failure of so-called judicial reforms,” as the reason for the Social Democratic Party (PSD)-led coalition’s losses in European Parliament elections May 26. 
 
A day after the August 2018 crackdown, PSD leader and lower-house speaker Liviu Dragnea was imprisoned following the rejection of his appeal of a conviction in an abuse-of-office case. 

Teen’s death
 
However, public anger has recently grown over what many see as an increasingly corrupt and dysfunctional public administration after the gruesome slaying of a 15-year-old girl from Caracal, in southern Romania, whose calls for help were mishandled by police in July. 
 
Alexandra Macesanu phoned the European emergency number three times to say she had been kidnapped, beaten and raped. It took the authorities 19 hours to locate and enter the premises where she had been taken, as they initially made light of her calls and then struggled to trace them. 
 
Authorities later found burned bone fragments on site, which they identified with DNA tests earlier this month as being Macesanu’s. A 65-year-old car mechanic has confessed to killing Alexandra and Luiza Melencu, 18, in April 2019. 
 
The authorities’ handling of the case has triggered street protests across the country and stark condemnation from opposition-backed center-right President Klaus Iohannis. 
 
Iohannis, who is up for re-election in November, said the PSD-led coalition was “the moral author of the tragedy” because of its measures against the judiciary. 
 
The interior minister resigned, while the chief of Romanian police, the education minister and several other officials were fired. 

Allegations of crime, trafficking
 
However, media allegations of organized crime and human-trafficking networks’ ties to senior politicians and local police continue to surface, adding to what many Romanians already see as growing social insecurity. 
 
According to U.N. estimates, at least 3.4 million people have left Romania since 2007, when it joined the EU — a number second only to the refugee total from war-torn Syria. The World Bank said roughly 3 million to 5 million Romanians are working and living abroad, in jobs ranging from day laborers to doctors. 
 
Furthermore, the latest Romanian statistics show that almost 220,000 people emigrated in 2017 after the PSD-led coalition took over in December 2016 and initiated a series of measures to weaken the judiciary and the rule of law. 
 
Many Romanian expatriates had planned to attend Saturday’s protests. 
 
“We were defeated last year,” a woman from the northeastern city of Iasi told reporters on her way to Bucharest. ‘We failed to push for change after August 10. We did not continue the fight to reform the system. As a result of our complacency, two girls are now dead.” 

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JERUSALEM – The Israeli army said its troops fatally shot four heavily armed Palestinians on the Gaza border early Saturday, alleging one of them had crossed and thrown a grenade at soldiers. 
 
Separately, security forces said they had arrested two Palestinians suspected of killing an off-duty Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank earlier this week. 
 
There have been frequent clashes along the Gaza border since the Palestinians began organizing regular mass protests there in March 2018. But Saturday’s exchange was unusual because of the weaponry the Israeli army said was involved on the Palestinian side. 
 
“The terrorists were equipped with AK-47 assault rifles, RPG grenade launchers and hand grenades,” an army statement said.  
 
A spokeswoman said the army “opened fire after one of the terrorists scaled the barrier and hurled a grenade at the soldiers.” 
 
No Israeli casualties were reported. 

‘Uniforms’
 
Army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said the four Palestinians were all wearing “uniforms” — without elaborating — and were equipped with food and a medical kit as well as the rifles. 
 
A Hamas statement condemned Israel’s killing of the four Palestinians as a “crime.” 
 
But the Islamist rulers of the Palestinian enclave made no claim of responsibility and did not say whether the four were members of its armed wing. 
 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his government’s stance that Hamas is responsible for all attacks emanating from Gaza. 
 
“Israel will continue to act to thwart infiltrations of its territory and attacks on our citizens,” he said in a statement. 

Blockade spurs protests
 
Palestinian demonstrations at the border demanding the lifting of Israel’s blockade, in effect for more than a decade, have often led to violence and a deadly response from the Israeli army. 
 
At least 301 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza or the border area since March 2018, the majority during the demonstrations. 
 
Seven Israelis have also been killed. 
 
The protests have declined in intensity in recent months following a truce brokered by the United Nations and Egypt, under which Israel agreed to ease aspects of its blockade in return for calm. 
 
Sporadic violence has continued but the Israeli army has said most of it consisted of lone-wolf attacks. 
 
Netanyahu is widely seen as wanting to avoid a major flare-up in the Palestinian territories as Israel prepares for a snap general election on Sept. 17, its second election this year. 
 
But he is likely to face political pressure to act firmly against any significant attack. 
 
Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008. 
 
On Aug. 1, a Palestinian seeking to avenge his brother’s death by Israeli fire entered Israel from Gaza armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and hand grenades. He was killed and three Israeli soldiers wounded, the army said. 

Soldier slain
 
The latest killings on the Gaza border came days after off-duty soldier Dvir Sorek was found dead “with stabbing marks” near the West Bank settlement of Migdal Oz. 
 
Israel’s domestic intelligence agency said Saturday that two Palestinians suspected of killing him had been arrested.  
 
“After an intensive intelligence operation by security services, the Israeli police and army arrested suspects” in his slaying, Shin Bet said in a statement. 
 
The killing of the 19-year-old, between Bethlehem and the flashpoint city of Hebron, further hiked Israeli-Palestinian tensions ahead of the elections. 
 
The Israeli army said separately that 100 “rioters” had attacked security forces with rocks as they apprehended “the terrorist squad” suspected of killing him. 
 
Netanyahu commended the swift arrests. “In recent years our forces have laid hands on all of the Palestinian murderers who have attacked Israelis, and today they have done so again,” he said. 

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Some material for this report came from RFE/RL. 

Republican and Democratic lawmakers joined forces to oppose moves by the White House that critics fear could lead to sharp cuts in foreign aid for international health, narcotics and peacekeeping initiatives, and development assistance. 
 
Members of the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations committees sent a letter Friday to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) expressing “deep concern” after it had instructed the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to freeze about $4 billion in their budgets until it reviewed any money that hadn’t yet been spent. 
 
Critics have said the freeze could be the first step in making cuts to foreign aid.  The lawmakers sent the letter to the OMB seeking to head off such a move and threatening a response if the administration moved ahead with cuts. They also pointed out that, under the Constitution, it is Congress that appropriates money, which they said was “essential” to U.S. global leadership and security. 
 
“Slashing crucial diplomacy and development programming would be detrimental to our national security while also undermining Congress’ intended use for these funds,” said the letter, signed by Sens. James Risch, R-Idaho, and Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Reps. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Michael McCaul, R-Texas. 

‘Direct affront’
 
In the letter, the lawmakers wrote, “It would be inappropriate for any administration, under any circumstance, to attempt to override Congress’ most fundamental power. Such action would be precedent-setting and a direct affront to the separation of powers principle upon which our nation was built.” 
 

The freeze affects 10 bank accounts overseen by USAID and the State Department, a senior administration official told RFE/RL. 
 
The OMB made the request to USAID and State Department on Aug. 3 and has yet to receive information about how much is in those accounts and how they plan to use the money. 
 
The funds under scrutiny cover fiscal 2018 and 2019 and would otherwise expire if not spent by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. 
 
Last weekend’s order came at the beginning of an extended congressional recess that ends Sept. 9, a time when lawmakers would have more difficulty blocking such a move. 
 
Funding for a Pakistan space initiative and Uzbek education program are two of the projects funded by the 10 accounts under review. 
 
The chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee urged the heads of the OMB to make money available right away. 
 
Republican dissent

Republicans in both houses of Congress have typically been extremely supportive of President Donald Trump’s policies, although many have spoken up against moves related to foreign affairs, including his close ties to Saudi Arabia, plans to withdraw troops from Syria and a reduction in aid to Central America. 
 
The Trump administration has made repeated efforts to reduce the amount of money Washington spends on foreign aid. 
 
In April, the administration unsuccessfully tried to cut the budget on foreign aid and diplomacy by 23 percent. 
 
At the time, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Trump ally, called the proposal “insane.” 
 

Last week, Engel said, “This administration’s contempt for Congress is astounding. … When Congress decides how much we can spend on foreign assistance, it isn’t a suggestion. It’s the law, backed up by the Constitution.” 
 
The Democrat added that the Republican administration’s order “would devastate our ability to project American values and leadership around the globe.” 
 
‘Reckless and irresponsible’

InterAction, a global alliance of nongovernmental organizations that serves “the world’s poor and vulnerable,” also denounced the order. 
 
“It is both disappointing and saddening that President Trump consistently undermines the decisions that our elected representatives in Congress have made to support foreign assistance,” said CEO Sam Worthington. “Data tells us that the small fraction of America’s budget that goes to foreign aid yields big results. The White House’s repeated political ploys to halt aid threaten the effectiveness of U.S. assistance and put America’s global leadership at risk.” 
 
Liz Schrayer, CEO of the nonprofit U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, called the administration’s order “a reckless and irresponsible move” and added, “OMB appears set on taking a sledgehammer to one of the most minuscule parts of the entire federal budget that would significantly damage America’s security and economic interests — and thwart congressional authority.” 
 
OMB spokeswoman Rachel Semmel said federal agencies have a responsibility to appropriately spend the congressionally approved funds.  
 
“In an effort to ensure accountability, OMB has requested the current status of several foreign assistance accounts to identify the amount of funding that is unobligated.”

…

HONOLULU — Hawaii experts say two native bird populations have declined by more than half and could face extinction if nothing is done to save them, a report said. 
 
The Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project said 312 Maui parrotbills and 2,411 crested honeycreepers remain in the wild, Hawaii News Now reported Friday. 
 
Those are down more than 50% from previous population estimates of the two Hawaiian honeycreeper species, according to a new interagency monitoring report from the U.S. Geological Survey, Hawaii Division of Forestry and Wildlife, and other wildlife agencies.  
 
“Without intervention, these changes are projected to cause population decline and additional extinction of the remaining Hawaiian forest birds,” recovery project expert Hannah Mounce said. 
 
Studies over the past several decades found there are multiple threats to these two endangered bird species, including disease and habitat degradation, wildlife officials said. 
 
There are plans to reintroduce the parrotbills, also referred to as kiwikiu, to the Nakula Natural Area Reserve in the south and west regions of Maui in order to boost the endangered species’ numbers, experts said. 
 
In preparation for the reintroduction, more than 200,000 native plants were planted in the Nakula Forest Reserve and Kahikinui Forest Reserve since 2013 covering thousands of acres. 
 
“It is urgent that we move forward with the recovery efforts for these species. If we wait for much longer, we will not have these species left to save,” Mounce said. 
 
Wildlife officials did not mention plans for the crested honeycreepers, also known as akohekohe. 

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Amanda Browder works with fabrics of all kinds. But, instead of creating clothing for people, she “dresses up” buildings with her unique style of installation art. Maxim Moskalkov has the story.
 

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More than a year has passed since protests against changes to Nicaraguas pension program turned into a full scale socio-political crisis. The government crackdown by President Daniel Ortega has resulted in more than 200 deaths, and forced more than 65,000 people to leave the country. Among them journalists who say they’ve been targeted. But even though they’re not there, many of these journalists are still sending the news back home. VOA reporter Cristina Caicedo Smit has the story.
 

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For many years, the United States has been issuing advisories, warning potential travelers about countries plagued by terrorism or armed conflict.  But now, Amnesty International, Japan, Uruguay and other countries are warning about the danger of travel to the U.S., citing gun violence. This sparked a response from President Donald Trump, as VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.
 

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This story originated in VOA’s Russian Service. Some information is from AFP.

WASHINGTON — The fundraising chief for prominent Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny says a Moscow court’s decision to freeze financial assets of the jailed activist’s anti-corruption watchdog is a laughably predictable outcome that says more about the group’s success in exposing widespread corruption than the money laundering charges it’s now facing.

A Moscow district court Thursday froze the assets of Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption (FBK), which was set up to spotlight the excessively lavish lifestyles of top government and Kremlin officials.

“It is actually very funny,” Leonid Volkov told VOA’s Russian Service just hours after criminal charges landed, pointing out that the investigation coincides with a crackdown that has seen Navalny jailed and thousands of people detained at some of the largest free-election rallies Moscow has seen since Putin’s 2012 term began.

“It has already been noted that when someone needs to be accused of murder, the call always comes from MP Lugovoi, who is actually accused of murder in Britain,” said Volkov, referring to former KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi, a member of the State Duma committee on security and countering corruption, who stands accused in the 2006 poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko.

Russian ‘projection’

Shortly after Thursday’s court ruling was announced, Navalny’s web site posted security camera footage of Russian Investigative Committee officials, Moscow’s equivalent of the FBI, entering FBK headquarters accompanied by masked guards in tactical gear. Other investigators raided the homes of FBK attorneys Vyacheslav Gimadi, Alexander Pomazuyev, Evgeny Zamyatin and Vladlen Los.

Agents also searched the homes of FBK video-producer Vitaly Kolesnikov and regional manager Anastasia Kadetova, and called in other FBK representatives for questioning.

“Everything is done according to this logic,” Volkov told VOA, explaining that just as a pro-Kremlin legislator who stands accused of murder would call for murder charges against an opposition figure, it was members of the State Duma’s financial crimes committee who filed the motion to bring money laundering charges against Navalny’s group.

“Allegations we’ve ‘laundered a billion rubles’ are being levied by the very officials whose homes we’ve proven are worth literally millions of dollars,” he said. “Thieves make accusations of theft; murderers make accusations of murder; rapists make accusations of violence and rape. In psychology, I believe this is what’s called ‘projection.’”

Corruption watchdog

Since being founded in 2011, Navalny’s FBK corruption watchdog has published reports detailing the lavish lifestyles of figures close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, including Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Moscow first deputy mayor Natalia Sergunina.

A court spokesperson said the order would freeze assets estimated at a billion rubles ($15.3 million). Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh, however, said the Moscow district court ordered a freeze of 75 million rubles ($1.1 million) held in accounts of the FBK and those of several staff members.

Russian investigators say the FBK knowingly used a large amount of money that was gained by third parties through criminal enterprises. Yarmysh says the foundation solicits donations on its website.

Four FBK employees are currently incarcerated, and several others are under an ongoing investigation. FBK lawyer Lyubov Sobol, who called for protests after she was barred from running for a seat on the Moscow City Duma, has been on hunger strike for almost a month.

“What we are seeing now is the most aggressive attempt so far to silence us,” Navalny recently wrote in his blog, vowing not to give in.

“The strategic aim of this raid and all the made-up legal affairs is to create fear. … Do not be afraid to go and demonstrate,” he added.

The opposition is planning another large protest in Moscow on Saturday, although hundreds were detained at the last gathering Aug. 3.

…

Prosecutors on Friday filed a terrorist threat charge against a 20-year-old man who said he walked into a Missouri store wearing body armor and carrying a loaded rifle and handgun to test whether Walmart would honor his constitutional right to bear arms.

The incident, just days after 22 people were killed during an attack at another Walmart in El Paso, Texas, caused a panic at the Springfield, Missouri, store. Dmitriy Andreychenko walked through filming himself with his cell phone Thursday afternoon.

No shots were fired and Andreychenko was arrested after he was stopped by an armed off-duty firefighter at the store.

“Missouri protects the right of people to open carry a firearm, but that does not allow an individual to act in a reckless and criminal manner endangering other citizens,’’ Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson said in a statement announcing the charge. Patterson compared the man’s actions to “falsely shouting fire in a theater causing a panic.”

If convicted, the felony charge of making a terrorist threat in the second degree is punishable by up to four years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, according to the prosecutor’s office. The charge means he showed reckless disregard for the risk of causing an evacuation or knowingly caused fear that lives were in danger.

“I wanted to know if Walmart honored the Second Amendment,” a probable cause statement released Friday with the charges quoted Andreychenko as saying.

Recorded his deed

Andreychenko started to record himself with his phone while he was still in the car parked at Walmart. He got the body armor from the trunk of his car and put it on before grabbing a shopping cart and walking into the store, according to the statement.

Andreychenko said his intention was to buy grocery bags. The rifle had a loaded magazine inserted, but a round was not chambered. A handgun on his right hip was loaded with one round in the chamber.

He said he bought the rifle and body armor because of three recent shootings and a stabbing, and said he wanted to protect himself.

Wife, sister warned him

His wife, Angelice Andreychenko, told investigators that she warned him it was not a good idea, adding that he was an immature boy.

His sister, Anastasia Andreychenko, said he had asked her if she would videotape him going into Walmart with a gun and she also told him it was a bad idea, according to the probable cause statement.

The statement does not allege that he pointed the weapons at anyone, although patrons in the surveillance video could be seen in the background running away.

Walmart bans him

Walmart issued a statement Friday that praised authorities for stopping the incident from escalating. It said Andreychenko is no longer welcome in its stores.

“This was a reckless act designed to scare people, disrupt our business and it put our associates and customers at risk,” said spokeswoman LeMia Jenkins. “We applaud the quick actions of our associates to evacuate customers from our store, and we’re thankful no one was injured.”

Since January 2017, Missouri has not required a permit to openly or conceal carry a firearm for those 19 years or older. Roughly 30 states allow the open carrying of handguns and rifles and shotguns in public without a permit.

San Francisco-based Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence said six states generally prohibit the open carrying of rifles and shotguns — California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota and New Jersey — along with the District of Columbia, the law center said.

California, Florida and Illinois also generally ban the open carry of handguns, as do New York and South Carolina.

Springfield is about 165 miles (266 kilometers) south of Kansas City, Missouri.
 

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Cameroon has instructed its military to be on the alert as Equatorial Guinea says it is building a border wall to stop Cameroonians and West Africans from illegally entering its territory. Equatorial Guinea’s announcement comes as officials of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) regional economic bloc, of which Equatorial Guinea is a member, are encouraging the free movement of people and goods to boost economic growth in the region.

Thirty-two-year old Cameroonian merchant Kome Pascal imports wine from Equatorial Guinea. He also exports cement, roofing sheets and farm produce from Cameroon to the neighboring nation. 

“I feel very bad because goods will not come again into Cameroon and farmers who sell in Equatorial Guinea, what do they expect them to do with their goods,” he told VOA. “Building that particular wall is not going to permit Cameroonians to sell their goods.” 

When Equatorial Guinea said it was building the wall and erected milestones on the border near the Cameroon town of Kye-Ossi, Cameroon army chief Lieutenant General Rene Claude Meka visited the border. Meka said he was told the neighboring state was not respecting territorial limits and was encroaching on Cameroon land. He said the Cameroonian army would not tolerate any unlawful intrusion.

Anastasio Asumu Mum Munoz, Equatorial Guinea ambassador to Cameroon, was called up by Cameroon’s minister of external relations on Thursday to explain his country’s plans for the border.

Ambassador Munoz said his country plans to build a wall, but that reports that the its military had installed milestones in Cameroon territory are misleading.

Equatorial Guinea has always accused Cameroon of letting its citizens and West Africans enter its territory illegally.

More than 100 migrants from Togo, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Benin on their way to Equatorial Guinea and Gabon are currently stranded in Cameroon after they were rescued from their capsizing vessel in the Atlantic Ocean.
 
Cameroonian-born Christian Mbock, visiting lecturer of international relations at the National University of Equatorial Guinea, said the wall will stop illegal migrants and secure Equatorial Guinea.

“There was a problem in Equatorial Guinea because there was a coup there, then the government had to protect itself and said that the government was suspending the implementation of [CEMAC’s decision for free movement],” he said. “It is a complex situation.”

Equatorial Guinea has often sealed its border with Cameroon, complaining of security threats posed by illegal immigration.

In December 2017, Equatorial Guinea said it had arrested 30 foreign armed men from Chad, the Central African Republic and Sudan on the border.  The report said they possessed rocket launchers, rifles and a stockpile of ammunition to destabilize the government of President Theodoro Obiang, who has led oil-rich Equatorial Guinea since 1979.

Cameroon said it also arrested 40 heavily-armed men on the 290-kilometer boundary. 

Both countries are members of the CEMAC, which in 2017 said it had reached a milestone when heads of state meeting in Chad lifted visa requirements for their 45 million citizens traveling within the six-member nation economic bloc.  
 

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