Simon Mann, the Old Etonian soldier of fortune who died last week at the age of 72, should have been the coda to the inglorious symphony of the white mercenary in Africa.

So madcap, so incongruous was the “Wonga Coup” he attempted to launch in Equatorial Guinea in 2004 that it seemed to belong to another era. Africa had moved on, old hands declared. Mann, poor fellow, had failed to read the winds of change.

Yet far from being a holdover from the past, Mann has proved to be a harbinger of the present. Analysts reckon there are now more foreign mercenaries operating in Africa than ever before.

The Russians, in the form of the Wagner Group, were the vanguard of the second wave, arriving in 2017.

But others are following in ever greater numbers, Turks, Chinese and Romanians among them – perhaps soon even Americans, with Erik Prince, the founder of the infamous Blackwater mercenary group, reportedly offering Congo his services as part of a putative minerals deal with Donald Trump.

Some are shadowy outfits, manned by ruthless racketeers, deployed to advance their states’ geopolitical ambitions.

Others lay claim to greater respectability. Blanching at the term “mercenary”, they call themselves private military contractors.

Many play a vital role in protecting weak governments by training inexperienced national armies, guarding key installations and taking the lead in counterinsurgency operations against Islamist militants.

Whatever their role, few of the new generation have the panache of the mercenaries of yesteryear who culminated with Mann.