Editing Mercenary (section)

=====Comoros=====
A major aim of French foreign policy was and still is to maintain the French sphere of influence in what is called ''[[Françafrique]]''. In 1975, [[Ali Soilih]] took power in the Comoros via a coup, and proved unwilling to accept the French viewpoint that his nation was part of ''Françafrique''. Unhappy with Soilih, the French secret service, the ''Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage'' in 1978 hired the French mercenary [[Bob Denard]] to invade the Comoros to overthrow Soilih.<ref name="Hebditch, David p. 136">Hebditch, David & Connor, Ken ''How to Stage a Military Coup: From Planning to Execution'', New York: Skyhorse, 2005 p. 136</ref> Making the Comoros a tempting target for Denard were its small size, consisting of only three islands in the Indian Ocean. Moreover, Soilih had abolished the Comorian Army, replacing the Army with a militia known as the Moissy, made up mostly of teenage boys with only the most rudimentary military training.<ref name="Hebditch, David p. 135">Hebditch, David & Connor, Ken ''How to Stage a Military Coup: From Planning to Execution'', New York: Skyhorse, 2005 p. 135</ref> The Moissy, which was modeled after the [[Red Guards]] in [[China]], existed mainly to terrorize Soilih's opponents and was commanded by a 15-year-old boy, appointed solely because of his blind devotion to Soilih.<ref name="Hebditch, David p. 135"/>

On the night of 13 May 1978, Denard and 42 other mercenaries landed on Grande Comore island, annihilated the poorly trained and badly commanded Moissy, none of whom had any military experience, and by the morning the Comoros was theirs.<ref name="Hebditch, David p. 136"/> President Soilih was high on marijuana and naked in his bed together with three nude teenage schoolgirls watching a pornographic film, when Denard kicked in the door to his room to inform him that he was no longer president.<ref name="Hebditch, David p. 136"/> Soilih was later taken out and shot with the official excuse being that he was "shot while trying to escape".<ref name="Hebditch, David p. 136"/> The new president of the Comoros, [[Ahmed Abdallah]], was a puppet leader and the real ruler of the Comoros was Colonel Denard, who brought the Comoros back into ''Françafrique''.<ref name="Hebditch, David p. 136"/>

As a ruler, Denard proved himself to be extremely greedy as he rapaciously plundered the Comorian economy to make himself into a very rich man.<ref name="Axelrod, Alan p. 78">Axelrod, Alan ''Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies'', Washington: CQ Press, 2013 p. 78</ref> Denard served as the commander of the Comorian Presidential Guard and became the largest single landowner in the Comoros, developing the best land by the sea into luxury resorts catering to tourists who wanted to enjoy the tropics.<ref name="Axelrod, Alan p. 78"/> Denard converted to Islam (the prevailing religion in the Comoros), and took advantage of the Islamic rules on polygamy to maintain for himself a harem of Comorian women. Officially, France was committed to the United Nations sanctions against the apartheid government of South Africa, which French and South African businesses circumvented via the Comoros, a form of sanctions-busting that was tolerated by Denard as long as he received his cut of the profits.<ref name="Axelrod, Alan p. 78"/>

Ultimately, Denard's antics as the "great white conqueror" of the Comoros and his lavish lifestyle made him into embarrassment for the French government, as there were charges that France was engaged in neo-colonialism in the Comoros. At the same time there were alternatives to Denard in the form of black Comorian politicians who wanted Denard out, but were willing to keep the Comoros in ''Françafrique'', which would allow Paris to achieve its aims without the embarrassment of a white European exploiting a country inhabited by black Africans. When Abdallah tried to dismiss Denard as commander of the Presidential Guard, Denard had him assassinated on 26 November 1989.<ref name="Axelrod, Alan p. 78"/> At that point, the French government, which had an alternative leadership in place, intervened by sending paratroopers to remove Denard and the other mercenaries from the Comoros while installing [[Said Mohamed Djohar]] as president.<ref name="Axelrod, Alan p. 78"/>

On 28 September 1995, Denard again invaded the Comoros, but this time, Paris was against the invasion, and staged [[Operation Azalee]] – dispatching 600 [[List of French paratrooper units|paratroops]] to the Comoros to usher Denard and his mercenaries out.<ref name="Axelrod, Alan p. 78"/> Denard was charged in France with the murder of President Abdallah, but was acquitted owing to a lack of evidence.<ref name="Axelrod, Alan p. 78"/> In 2006, he was found guilty of conspiracy to overthrow the government of the Comoros in 1995, but by this point Denard was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and he did not serve a day in prison, instead dying in a Paris hospital on 13 October 2007.<ref>Axelrod, Alan ''Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies'', Washington: CQ Press, 2013 p. 79</ref>