Though Robert Mugabe’s successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa, described his mentor, who has died aged 95 in Singapore, as “an icon of liberation” Mugabe was an African freedom fighter turned kleptocratic despot straight from central casting — maybe central casting at London’s Ealing Studios where tales of empire were gilded and offered as history rather than entertainment.

British mercenary Simon Mann was today jailed for being the key player in a 2004 coup in Equatorial Guinea.

British mercenary leader Simon Mann, a neighbour of Mark Thatcher, was jailed for seven years in Zimbabwe today for conspiring to buy weapons of war.

Most of the 70 suspected mercenaries accused of participating in a foiled plot to overthrow the government in Equatorial Guinea were acquitted today of charges that they conspired to buy weapons from Zimbabwe’s state arms manufacturer.

Prosecutors in Zimbabwe today dropped firearms charges against three of 70 suspected mercenaries who are accused of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea.