Bob Denard

When I was younger, an evil history teacher randomly assigned students different countries to research. Other classmates got France, Britain, Germany. I got Comoros. Seriously.

Now this guy Bob Denard was interesting. French mercenary, he came over and ousted the first president. Then he came back and reinstated the first president. He ran the presidential guard and converted to Islam. After the first president was killed (some people apparently think maybe by a soldier of Denard, even though Denard himself got injured), the second president’s half brother became president. Denard tried to do another coup but was stopped by French paratroopers.

This is a question based on ignorance on my part…but what was his motivation for all this? Just money? What ended Denard up doing all this business in the Comoros, ousting a guy, bringing him back in, and then trying another coup?