Bob Denard | French mercenary, 78

Bob Denard, 78, a French former mercenary who staged coups and led uprisings across Africa and the Middle East, has died in the Paris area, his family said yesterday.

The cause of death was not immediately announced. He had been known to suffer from Alzheimer's disease and cardiovascular problems.

Once France's top gun for hire, he led uprisings starting in 1961 in Belgian Congo, Nigeria, Angola, Zimbabwe - when it was white-ruled Rhodesia - as well as Iran and Yemen. He claimed France often covertly supported his actions.

Mr. Denard, whose real name was Gilbert Bourgeaud, staged at least three coups on the Comoros, an impoverished chain of islands in the Indian Ocean which he ruled through figurehead presidents from 1978 to 1989 - when France negotiated his departure.

Last year, he was handed a five-year suspended prison term by a French court for his role in a failed 1995 coup in the Comoros. He was convicted for leading about 30 French mercenaries ashore in an overnight raid in an attempt to overthrow then-President Said Djohar.

A week later, French troops, acting in the name of a bilateral defense accord between France and the Comoros, freed Djohar and took the mercenaries captive.

In May 1999, Mr. Denard was acquitted in the 1989 assassination of Comoros President Ahmed Abdallah, who was shot to death in his office in Moroni, the capital.

A Paris court also sentenced him to a five-year suspended sentence in 1993 for his role in an attempted 1977 coup in the West African nation of Benin. - AP