WONGA COUP: A Plot by Mercenaries to Seize Oil Billions in Equatorial Guinea

On March 7, 2004, Zimbabwean authorities arrested about seventy men at the Harare International airport for illegal arms trafficking and immigration violations. It soon came to the surface that these men in question were mercenaries that were on their way to Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea to overthrow the long time leader of the country, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. These mercenaries had been organised by mainly British Financiers including Mark Thatcher, the son of the former UK Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. The leader of this group was Simon Mann , a former partner in the defunct private military firm Executive Outcomes. As their cover story, Simon Mann claimed that they were picking up weapons for a security job at a mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A day later, fifteen more men were arrested in Equatorial Guinea and they were linked to the group that had been arrested in Harare, Zimbabwe. After about two weeks, the conspirators in each country signed confessions admitting that they were headed to Equatorial Guinea to stage this infamous coup, known as the Wonga Coup. With Wonga being British slang for money. In this Episode of African Biographics, we look at the perpetrators of the coup, as well as an account of this audacious, ,yet error-prone 2004 coup attempt against The President of Equatorial Guinea by these mercenaries. ************************************************************************************************ Support Us Here: Buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/africanbiog Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=538384... ************************************************************************************************ Sources: https://www.amazon.com/Wonga-Coup-Rut...   / when-margaret-thatchers-son-tried-to-take-...   https://www.csis.org/analysis/wonga-c... https://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/af... https://www.theafricareport.com/7355/... https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Globa... https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2011/1... (video) https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Simon... https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.r... https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.alja... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/359... http://www.raceandhistory.com/selfnew... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa... ************************************************************************************************ Afristory Productions Video:    • A complex History of Executive Outcomes,a ...   ********************************************************************************************** Music: Desert City by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-... Artist: http://incompetech.com/ Kumasi Groove by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-... Artist: http://incompetech.com/ Whimsy Groove Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... ************************************************************************************************* Feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]