2004 Equatorial Guinea coup d'état attempt

The 2004 Equatorial Guinea coup d'état attempt, also known as the Wonga coup, failed to replace President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo with exiled opposition politician Severo Moto. Mercenaries organised by mainly British financiers were arrested in Zimbabwe on 7 March 2004 before they could carry out the plot. Prosecutors alleged that Moto was to be installed as the new president in return for preferential oil rights to corporations affiliated to those involved with the coup. The incident received international media attention after the reported involvement of Sir Mark Thatcher in funding the coup, for which he was convicted and fined in South Africa.

On 7 March 2004 Zimbabwean police in Harare airport impounded a plane which flew in from South Africa. The alleged plot leader, ex-Special Air Service (SAS) officer Simon Mann, was arrested with two colleagues near the runway while waiting for arms to be loaded on a Boeing 727(N4610), carrying three crew and 64 former soldiers recruited in South Africa. The majority of those alleged to have been the mercenaries planning to carry out the coup are based in South Africa and ex-members of the 32 Buffalo Battalion, a special force unit that fought for the South African apartheid regime.

On 9 March 2004 Nick du Toit and 14 other South African and Angolan men were arrested in Equatorial Guinea on suspicion of being the mercenaries' vanguard.

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