Mariana van Zeller

But it was eight incredibly scary days.

You know, I've been a journalist covering black markets and going to war zones and conflict areas all my life.

But this was, I think, the most uncomfortable and scared I've ever been because...

First of all, the uncertainty of not knowing.

There were all these – the West African states were threatening invasion.

The Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary group, were saying that they were going to come and protect the new military coup leaders.

And so it was a power struggle between the United States and Russia.

And that's sort of the last place you want to be, right?

Wow.

And, again, no protection.

I'm there with my team.

I'm sort of the boss in that situation because I'm the owner of the company that produces this.

I'm the host of the show.

I'm the executive producer.

And I felt very responsible for my team as well.

And, yeah, the clock is ticking.

And they're telling us that in a few days we're going to invade and there's going to be a massive possibility of a massive war.

And we're stuck with, again, no protection and no way out.

So it was really, really scary.

That's the interesting part.