KINSHASA (Reuters) – Congo has released a group of South Africans, Nigerians and Americans arrested over what the government said was a suspected coup plot ahead of elections in July, diplomats said on Sunday.

Congo said on Wednesday it had detained the 32 foreigners for planning a coup ahead of presidential and parliamentary polls. Security sources said the arrests were linked to domestic political rivalries and that there was never a serious threat to the government.

South African officials said the Democratic Republic of Congo had deported 19 of its citizens arrested in connection with the plot allegations.

“They have been released and … all charges have been dropped,” Sisa Ngombane, South African ambassador to Congo, told Reuters in Kinshasa.

South African Foreign Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said a plane carrying the men had taken off from Kinshasa airport en route to South Africa.

Most of the 19 were employees of a Pretoria-based security firm and had been providing security training for Congo’s National Transport Authority.

But some were advising a Congolese presidential candidate, Harvard-trained doctor Oscar Kashala, one of 32 contenders vying with President Joseph Kabila for the country’s top job.

“The Americans were released and left on a flight last night. The Nigerians have also been released,” said a Western diplomat in Kinshasa who asked not to be named.

The Congolese government was not immediately available to comment.

The July 30 polls will be the first multi-party elections in four decades in the former Belgian colony, a nation roughly the size of Western Europe lying in the heart of Africa.

International donors on Friday accused Congo’s government of exploiting the alleged coup plot to harass political opponents.
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