The Wonga Coup: Simon Mann's Plot to Seize Oil Billions in Africa

by Adam Roberts (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2006

  $3.25

  On 7 March 2004, Zimbabwean police impounded a plane, which flew in from South Africa with 64 alleged mercenaries on board. The group, led by Nick Du Toit and former SAS member Simon Mann, were planning a coup in Equatorial Guinea. Within a few days of the failed takeover, Du Toit appeared on television and admitted everything, almost certainly encouraged by torture. Once investigators started to piece together the facts they found that the elaborate plot was funded not by oil tycoons but by celebrity investors. Several names were put forward, including Sir Mark Thatcher and scandal-prone author Jeffrey Archer. In November 2004 Britain's foreign secretary, Jack Straw, admitted that his government knew about the plot three months before it took place. The target of the coup was Obiang Nguema, the president of Equatorial Guinea and one of the last relics of old-fashioned tyranny in Africa. But the plotters were not campaigning for democracy. Equatorial Guinea is Africa's 3rd largest producer of oil, pumping 350,000 barrels per day, and the coup plotters wanted a share of these oil billions. Adam Roberts tells the amazing story of the coup plot, recounting the drama in detail, and explaining the significance of the events of March 2004 and their aftermath. He also uses the narrative to shed light more broadly on Africa's politics and economy, providing a rich understanding of a continent that is still all too poorly known and the great scramble for control of the continent's bountiful resources.