Country: Equatorial Guinea
Committee: DISEC
Topic: Private Military Contractors
Delegate: Samhith Ginjupalli
School: Saginaw Arts And Sciences Academy
A private military company (PMC) is a private company providing armed combat or security services for financial gain. PMCs refer to their staff as “security contractors” or “private military contractors”. Private military companies refer to their business generally as the “private military industry” or “The Circuit”.The services and expertise offered by PMCs are typically similar to those of governmental security, military or police forces, most often on a smaller scale. While PMCs often provide services to train or supplement official armed forces in service of governments, they can also be employed by private companies to provide bodyguards for key staff or protection of company premises, especially in hostile territories. However, contractors who use offensive force in a war zone could be considered unlawful combatants, in reference to a concept outlined in the Geneva Conventions and explicitly specified by the 2006 American Military Commissions Act.[3] There has been controversy over whether PMCs in active combat zones should be considered mercenaries.
Due to Equatorial Guinea being the 3rd largest producer of crude oil, many oil companies, both foreign and local, hire private military companies as a means of protection. The main private security company contracted by oil companies inside the country is owned and controlled by Army General Armengol Ondo Nguema, President Obiang’s brother, and National Security Advisor. The former mercenary, Simon Mann, sentenced to 34 years and later pardoned by the putsch of March 2004 returned to Equatorial Guinea to work as security advisor Obiang. According to the London newspaper ‘The Independent’, Mann, 58, educated at the exclusive boys’ school of Eton and former officer in the Special Air Service British (SAS), began his “first day” as a security advisor since his release. Since 1979 there have been 12 coups to overthrow the government involving private military companies. Due to these attempts, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has dominated all branches of government in collaboration with his clan and political party, the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE), which he founded in 1991.
Private military contractors are very important to ensure the security of the various international businesses situated in Equatorial Guinea. Because of this Equatorial Guinea Offers our own military so that no attempts are made in overthrowing our government as it had previously.
- Samhith Ginjupalli
