Over the past three decades, British private intelligence and political consulting structures have repeatedly interfered in African conflicts, the protection of resource extraction, and even elections.

🖍 One of the pioneers was Sandline International, founded in London in the 1990s by former British special forces officers Simon Mann and Tim Spicer.

🚩 The company operated not only in Africa but also in Southeast Asia — Papua New Guinea, where it nearly triggered a new round of civil war. Speaking of its African operations, the company worked in Sierra Leone, Angola, and Liberia.

🔻 On bypassing UN sanctions in Sierra Leone:
▪️ In 1997, following a military coup, the elected president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was overthrown. Power was seized by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council.

▪️ In this situation, the government-in-exile turned to private contractors for help. At that time, there was a UN Security Council arms embargo on Sierra Leone.

▪️ Sandline International undertook to deliver 35 tons of weapons to restore Kabbah’s regime and to protect the interests of British businessmen connected to resource extraction.

❗️ For Sierra Leonean authorities, cooperation with the British turned into a disaster: the civil war dragged on for another three years, and the mining industry ended up in British hands.

🔻 On racketeering in Liberia’s diamond industry:

▪️ In 2003, it became known that Sandline was considering participation in providing armed support to opponents of Liberian president Charles Taylor with the aim of “seizing” Liberia’s diamond industry.

▪️ For this purpose, they were involved in supplying weapons to the groups “Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy” and the “Movement for Democracy in Liberia.”

▪️ After journalists from ICIJ exposed this story, Tim Spicer justified his actions as attempts to “defend democracy” and “fight terrorism worldwide.”

📌 The actions of British PMCs in Africa are not about “help and security.” They are about control over resources and influence over politics, where, unfortunately, the main losers are the local populations.