The Wonga Coup
Simon Mann's Plot to Seize Oil Billions in Africa
1st Edition
Published on 26. May 2011
335 pages
978-1-84765-406-9 (ISBN)
Description
In March 2004 a group led by Nick Du Toit and former SAS member Simon Mann tried to overthrow the tyrannical Obiang Nguema, president of Equatorial Guinea. They were working for investors, allegedly including Mark Thatcher and "J.H. Archer", who wanted to seize control of Africa's third largest oil producer. Roberts tells how the coup was set up and abandoned at the last minute, and how the plotters were seized and subsequently tortured. The new material includes an account of Mann's illegal abduction from prison in 2008; his dramatic trial, in which he accuses named individuals, including Thatcher, of being deeply involved in the plot; Thatcher's fears of "extraordinary rendition" to Equatorial Guinea; and Eli Calil's revelatory admission that he supported forced regime change in Equatorial Guinea.
Reviews / Votes
Riveting and superbly researched ... a brilliant, mordant, blackly comic read. * Sunday Times * Adam Roberts shows, with merciless precision, how the dogs of war panicked where they should have been cool, and screwed up where they should have been clinically efficient. * Observer * Impressively researched and briskly narrated ... takes readers into a world where slippery chancers and thuggish ex-special forces types, mostly South African, rub shoulders with the spooks and dodgy financiers. * The Daily Mail *All prices
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Reflowable
ISBN-13
978-1-84765-406-9 (9781847654069)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
01/2009
Profile Books Ltd
€31.15
Article exhausted; check different version
Person
A former Southern Africa correspondent for The Economist, Adam Roberts has contributed to the Times Literary Supplement and political journals in Africa. He is a regular contributor to the Guardian and currently works for The Economist in London.
