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Agence France-Presse

Mike Hoare, one of Africa’s best-known mercenaries who fought in the Democratic Republic of Congo and led a failed coup in the Seychelles, has died aged 100, the family said.
Nicknamed “Mad Mike”, Hoare died on Sunday in South Africa where he had retired.
Born 1919 in India to Irish parents, Hoare was educated in England where he qualified as a chartered accountant.
He attended a small-arms course at the London Irish Rifles and an officer training course in the British army during World War II and went on to serve in India and in Burma, now known as Myanmar.
The fervent anti-communist then emigrated to South Africa in 1948.
Libya conflict: Russian mercenaries from the shadowy Wagner Group are spearheading the battle for capital Tripoli
“The well known adventurer and soldier of fortune, Lt Col ‘Mad Mike’ Hoare, died in his sleep and with dignity aged 100 years at a care facility in Durban on 2 February 2020,” the family said in a statement.
His son Chris, said most people described him as “an officer and a gentleman”, but “only a few realised there was a bit of pirate thrown in”.

He added that Hoare “lived by the philosophy that you get more out of life by living dangerously, so it is all the more remarkable that he lived more than 100 years”.
The soldier-for-hire shot to fame in 1964 when he was hired by then Congolese prime minister Moise Tshombe to crush a communist-inspired rebellion which broke out shortly after the country’s independence from Belgium.
The campaign lasted 18 months and involved some 300 soldiers, mostly South Africans.
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On his return to South Africa, he reportedly told journalists that “killing communists is like killing vermin, killing African nationalists is as if one is killing an animal”.
“My men and I have killed between 5,000 to 10,000 Congo rebels in the 20 months that I have spent in the Congo. But that’s not enough. There are 20 million Congolese you know and I assume that about half of them at one time or another were rebels whilst I was down here.”
His soldiers’ nickname “Wild Geese”, inspired the title of a 1978 film about mercenaries in Africa which starred Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris and Hardy Kruger.


In 1981, Hoare led a group of mercenaries that planned a coup to return to power the pro-Western founding president James Mancham to power in the Seychelles archipelago.
The group of more than 40 entered the country disguised as a beer-drinking tourist party called “The Ancient Order of Froth-Blowers”.
However, their plan came undone when one of his men got into the wrong queue at customs and an airport inspector found a weapon in the luggage and a gunfight broke out.
The men then hijacked an Air India flight and forced the pilot to take them to Durban in South Africa to escape.
Hoare was arrested, convicted and sentenced to 20 years, 10 of which were suspended.
But he only served nearly three years in jail before he relocated to France where he lived for 20 years.
Hoare returned to South Africa in 2009. He is survived by five children.
His peers from the heyday of mercenaries in Africa include the likes of Frenchman Bob Denard and his “affreux” (“the frightful ones”) and Belgian “Black Jack” Schramme.
Additional reporting by Reuters


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Obituaries

Legendary Africa mercenary ‘Mad Mike’ Hoare, who inspired movie Wild Geese, dies aged 100

‘Mad Mike’, one of Africa's best-known mercenaries, somewhere in the Democratic Republic of Congo in December 1964. File photo: AFP

Mike Hoare, one of Africa's famous mercenaries, sitting in front of a birthday cake in 2019. Photo: AFP

Libya conflict: Russian mercenaries from the shadowy Wagner Group are spearheading the battle for capital Tripoli

Sirte forces, which are allied to the UN-backed government in Tripoli, are fighting forces backing eastern commander Khalifa Hifter. File photo: Reuters

The Bayraktar TB2 drone is pictured flying on December 16, 2019 at Gecitkale Airport in Famagusta in the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). - The Turkish military drone was delivered to northern Cyprus today amid growing tensions over Turkey's deal with Libya that extended its claims to the gas-rich eastern Mediterranean. The Bayraktar TB2 drone landed in Gecitkale Airport in Famagusta around 0700 GMT, an AFP correspondent said, after the breakaway northern Cyprus government approved the use of the airport for unmanned aerial vehicles. It followed a deal signed last month between Libya and Turkey that could prove crucial in the scramble for recently discovered gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean. (Photo by Birol BEBEK / AFP)

A fighter of Libya's UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) of Fayez Serraj, fires his rifle during clashes with forces of the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar, at the Al-Khalla frontline in Tripoli, Libya on Aug. 24, 2019. (Amru Salahuddien/DPA/Abaca Press/TNS)

(FILES) This file photo taken in Tripoli on June 29, 2019 shows fighters loyal to the internationally-recognised Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) displaying Chinese-made shells bearing the markings of the United Arab Emirates (left side on the box), which were reportedly seized from forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar in Gharyan, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Tripoli. - From buying an Irish navy boat re-registered as a "pleasure yacht" to enlisting a Canadian firm to recruit Sudanese fighters -- Libya's warring parties are running rings around a UN arms embargo. Drones, armoured vehicles, anti-tank missiles -- more and more sophisticated arms have been delivered to the two camps in recent months. The report accuses the UAE of delivering a Russian aerial defence system (Pantsir-S1) to Haftar's forces. (Photo by - / AFP)

FILE - In this Aug. 14, 2017 file photo, Libyan militia commander General Khalifa Hifter, top center, listens to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, bottom center, during their meeting in Moscow, Russia. Officials in Libya’s U.N.-backed administration say they plan to present evidence to Moscow of Russian mercenaries fighting alongside their adversary in their country’s war. Libyan officials say up to 800 fighters from the Russian private security contractor Wagner Group have joined the forces of Hifter, the commander of forces battling for months trying to capture Libya’s capital, Tripoli. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File)

‘Rambo’ mercenary Joseph Hunter, US Army sniper who became hired killer for Asian drug lord, gets life sentence for Philippines murder

In this September 26, 2013 file photo, US mercenary Joseph Hunter is led away by Thai police commandos after being arrested in Bangkok. Photo: AP

epa03884437 Alleged American drug trafficker Joseph Manuel Hunter (C) is escorted by Thai commandos as he arrives at the Thai Police Aviation Division in Bangkok, Thailand, 26 September 2013. US national Joseph Manuel Hunter, 48, who is wanted on drug trafficking charges in the United States, was arrested by officers from the Narcotics Suppression Bureau on the Phuket island, southern Thailand, on 25 September 2013, police said. EPA/NARONG SANGNAK

Paul Le Roux, an international drug and arms smuggler, who paid three former US soldiers to kill Philiippines property agent Catherine Lee in 2012

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Mike Hoare once led a group of mercenaries disguised as a beer-drinking tourist party in the Seychelles, a coup attempt that ended in fiasco
His biography inspired the 1978 film ‘The Wild Geese’, featuring actor Richard Burton



Mike Hoare was best known for his exploits during the Congo Crisis in the 1960s and for leading an unsuccessful coup d’etat attempt in the Seychelles in the 1980s.


War and conflict