The Democratic Republic of Congo has released three Americans, held for over a week on accusations of plotting a coup.
The three are security consultants for the AQMI Strategy Corporation of Orlando, Florida and they had been providing security services for DRC presidential candidate Dr. Oscar Kashala ahead of July elections.
The three, Joe Robinson, Kevin Billings and Seth Taylor were flown out of the DRC Saturday night by AQMI and are expected to return to the U.S. in the next few days.
They were detained along with a number of South Africans and Nigerians.
South Africa reported Sunday that the DRC has deported 19 of its citizens, held for coup plotting. The men were flown to Johannesburg.
Most of the South Africans are employees of a Pretoria-based security firm that had been giving security training to Congo's transport authority. The company has also been hired to protect Dr. Kashala.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.