1995: Bob Denard and 33 mercenaries seize the Comoros

On September 28, 1995, before daybreak, thirty-three men landed on Grande Comore in inflatable boats. At their head was the French mercenary Bob Denard. Within a few hours, they neutralized the army barracks, captured President Said Mohamed Djohar, and seized a sovereign state, a member of the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity.

This was not a first attempt. According to the chronology of Comorian coups d'état, Denard was involved in the five successful power takeovers in the archipelago between 1975 and 1995: against Ahmed Abdallah in August 1975, one month after independence; against Said Mohamed Jaffar in January 1976; against Ali Soilih in May 1978, with 43 men; and then in November 1989, the night Abdallah was killed.

A state treated as private property

Between 1978 and 1989, Denard commanded Abdallah's presidential guard, consisting of about 500 men, accumulated hotels and land, and converted to Islam under the name Said Mustapha Mhadjou. No election had given him this power. For Christophe Premat, a professor at Stockholm University, he embodied the logic of 'Françafrique' and the networks of Jacques Foccart: violence subcontracted to men without uniforms.

When Paris takes back control

The 1995 coup was one too many. France launched Operation Azalée: about 600 soldiers, including special forces, supported by the frigate Floréal. The mercenaries were surrounded in the barracks, and Denard surrendered on October 5 at 3:00 PM, before being transferred to a Parisian prison. The toll: four dead and nine wounded in his ranks, with no French losses.

Djohar, evacuated to Réunion, was not reinstated: he remained kept away from his country until the 1996 election, which he lost. One form of interference had replaced another, without the Comorians being consulted.

Justice at a slow pace

In 1999, Denard was acquitted in the case of Abdallah's death due to a lack of evidence and after the family withdrew their complaint. In June 2006, he was sentenced to a five-year suspended prison term for criminal conspiracy, with the court noting that French secret services had been aware of the 1995 coup. On appeal in July 2007: four years, with three suspended, a sentence never served due to health reasons. He died that same year.

Thirty-one years later, the episode is far from an exotic curiosity: African sovereignty was suspended by thirty-three armed men, and the independence of a state is also measured by who holds its weapons. Christophe Premat sees in Denard the precursor to a privatized violence that groups like Wagner have since amplified on the continent.

Key takeaways

On September 28, 1995, 33 mercenaries led by Bob Denard overthrew Comorian President Said Mohamed Djohar. One week later, French intervention put an end to twenty years of unofficial guardianship of the archipelago by a mercenary.