Bob Denard, 78; French mercenary fought communism

Bob Denard, a mercenary who staged coups, battled communism and fought for French interests and his own across Africa for more than three decades, has died, his family said. He was 78.

Denard died Saturday in the Paris area, said his sister, Georgette Garnier. No cause of death was given, but he had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and cardiovascular problems.

A fervent anti-communist who had worked for several dictators and monarchs, Denard was among a group of post-colonial French mercenaries known as “les affreux” -- the horrible ones. He said he had the backing of the French government, but was never given official support.

Denard was twice convicted in France for his role in a 1977 attempted coup in Marxist-controlled Benin in West Africa, and a short-lived 1995 coup in the impoverished Indian Ocean archipelago of the Comoros Islands. He received suspended prison terms in each case.

Denard was perhaps best known for controlling the Comoros behind a figurehead leader for most of the 1980s after a coup he led in the country.

Bob Denard was one of about a dozen aliases assumed by Gilbert Bourgeaud during his colorful career.

He was born in southwest France on Jan. 20, 1929, the son of a noncommissioned officer in the French colonial army. Garnier described him as a lifelong military man “adored by his men” -- dozens of whom were former European soldiers.

After serving in the colonial army in French Indochina in the 1950s, Denard became a mercenary in 1961 when he moved to the Belgian Congo to help train government troops. From there, he took part in uprisings in Nigeria, Angola and Rhodesia, a British colony that later became Zimbabwe.

Denard also served Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi of Iran and trained royalist troops in Yemen. He said he worked with British intelligence there, and with the CIA in Angola.

He was seriously injured at least four times -- one of which, in Congo, left him with a limp for the rest of his life. He was grazed by a bullet on his head in Angola, but remained undaunted, a biographer said.

“He believed in what he was doing,” said Pierre Lunel, author of the 1992 biography “Bob Denard, Le Roi de Fortune” (“Bob Denard, King of Fortune”).

“He did a job, and of course there were casualties,” Lunel said. “It was a time that doesn’t resemble today at all. The planet was split between two worlds: the communist world and free world in the West.”