Short description
In March 2004 a group led by Nick Du Toit and former SAS member Simon Mann tried to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea. They were working for investors who wanted to seize control of Africa's 3rd largest oil producer. This book tells how the coup was set up and abandoned at the last minute, and how the plotters were seized and tortured.
Long 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.
Review
'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 'Well-researched and wonderfully gripping.' Financial Times 'An irresistibly lurid tale... he lifts the curtain to the backrooms of power in postcolonial Africa' Publishers Weekly 'Impressively researched and briskly narrated.' The Daily Mail