Warlord by James Steel

Despite being blest with fertile soils, ample rain and plenteous mineral wealth the Democratic Republic of Congo is a poverty stricken shambles.   Under the corrupt reign of President Mobutu life for the ordinary citizen was hell on earth, their property and their bodies at the mercy of anyone with a gun and a uniform.   For the people of Kivu Province the situation was made worse when thousands of Hutu militia from Rwanda crossed the border fleeing retribution for their massacre of Tutsi tribesmen.   The central government, barely in control of the western half of the country, virtualy wrote off Kivu and left it to the rival militias.   However, the province had huge mineral wealth including the rare earths so badly needed for modern electronics and so a group of Chinese businessmen came up with a revolutionary solution, they would lease the province from the central government.

Alex Devereaux heads a military solution company (they don't like being called mercenaries these days) and having just finished a lucrative job is looking forward to a long period of rest and recreation when a Chinese businessman, Wu Fang, arrives to offer him a contract to supply a battalion of fighting men to provide the security in the new state of Kivu which the Chinese are setting out to create.   Wu Fang and his partners are putting up six billion dollars for infrastructure projects and to put mining in the province on a sound commercial footing but without Alex establishing law and order it will all be in vain.   The Chinese have a local politician called Rukuba to front the operation and Alex, intrigued by the sheer scale of the plan agrees to set up the security.   Needless to say that although Alex and his experienced professionals make mincemeat of the amateur thugs of the militias there are other forces at work that will bring the operation to a halt.

As readers of my blog will have noticed I am an historical novel fan and very rarely read a book set in the present day but I am very glad that I took the time to read Warlord.   The majority of the book is taken up with descriptions of the planning and execution of the military operations against the militias and what excellent descriptions they are.   Is James Steel an ex-soldier?   I think that he must be as he takes the reader through the intricate details of setting up the operations and coping with the interferance of politicians, journalists and NGOs all of whom have their own agendas.   This book kept me up until the early hours as I just could not put it down!   Highly recommended!