Putschist soldiers announced on Wednesday that they had put an “end to the regime in place” in Gabon and had placed President Ali Bongo Ondimba, whose re-election after 14 years in power had just been announced, under house arrest. Until this coup, condemned by France, this oil-rich Central African country had been ruled for more than 55 years by the Bongo family. Residents quickly demonstrated in the street their support for the military, while Ali Bongo called on his “friends” in a video to “make noise”.
The main information:
– a military coup is underway in Gabon after the re-election of President Ali Bongo
– Ali Bongo is currently under house arrest and calls on his “friends” to “make noise”
– President Bongo “is retired”, says the head of the Republican Guard
– The African Union condemned the coup attempt
– General Brice Oligui Nguema was named “President of the Transition”
General Brice Oligui Nguema appointed “President of the Transition”
The commander-in-chief of the Republican Guard, the elite unit of the Gabonese army, General Brice Oligui Nguema, was named “president of the transition” by the putschist soldiers in a press release read on the air of Gabon 24 television.
“General Oligui Nguema Brice has been unanimously appointed chairman of the Committee for the Transition and the Restoration of Institutions, chairman of the transition”, declared an officer in the presence of dozens of senior and general officers, who represent all the corps of the Gabonese army, according to the press release. The duration of the transition of the military to power has not been specified.
The White House says it is “monitoring the situation very closely”
The White House “is following very closely” the situation in Gabon, where putschist soldiers have placed President Ali Bongo Ondimba under house arrest, said one of its spokespersons on Wednesday. John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, assured that the American diplomatic personnel as well as the American soldiers present in Gabon were safe.
He declined to comment on the re-election of President Ali Bongo, in power for 14 years, and confined himself to assuring that the United States “remained focused on the work to be done with our partners in Africa and the entire population of the continent to help support democracy”. The spokesperson judged “deeply worrying” the succession of coups d’etat in Africa in recent years but judged that it was “too early” to speak of a basic “trend”.
Ali Bongo “is retired”
Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba, whose re-election after 14 years in power had just been announced, has been “retired”, the head of the Republican Guard, one of the actors in the coup, told the French newspaper Le Monde on Wednesday. military state, General Brice Oligui Nguema. Ali Bongo, currently under house arrest, “is retired, he enjoys all his rights. He is a normal Gabonese, like everyone else,” said the putschist soldier. “He did not have the right to serve a third term, the Constitution was flouted, the method of election itself was not good. So the army decided to turn the page, to take its responsibilities” , he argued.
Carried in triumph on Wednesday by hundreds of soldiers, according to images broadcast by state television, the head of the presidential guard refuses for the time being to consider himself the new Gabonese head of state. “I am not yet declaring myself, I am not considering anything for the moment,” he replied to Le Monde. “It’s a debate that we are going to have with all the generals,” he said, referring to a meeting “at 2:00 p.m.” (1:00 p.m. GMT). “It will be a question of reaching a consensus. Everyone will put forward ideas and the best ones will be chosen, as well as the name of the person who will lead the transition”, he assured.
The African Union “strongly condemns the coup attempt”
The President of the Commission of the African Union (AU) “strongly condemns the coup attempt” in Gabon, denouncing “a flagrant violation” of the principles of the continental organization, in a press release published on Wednesday. Moussa Faki Mahamat “calls on the national army and the security forces to adhere strictly to their republican vocation, to guarantee the physical integrity of the President of the Republic (Ali Bongo Ondimba), members of his family, as well as those of his government”.
“Moussa Faki is following with great concern the situation in the Gabonese Republic and strongly condemns the attempted coup (in the) country as a way to resolve its current post-election crisis,” the AU statement said. “He strongly recalls that it constitutes a flagrant violation of the legal and political instruments of the African Union, including the African Charter on Elections, Democracy and Governance”. Until this coup, Gabon, an oil-rich Central African country, had been ruled for more than 55 years by the Bongo family.
Placed under house arrest
Ali Bongo, who succeeded his father in 2009, was placed under house arrest “surrounded by his family and his doctors”, and one of his sons, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, was arrested for “high treason”, announced the soldiers on state television. A series of arrests also targeted six other senior officials of the regime, such as the chief of staff of Ali Bongo and his deputy director, advisers to the presidency as well as the numbers one and two of the all-powerful Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG). .
The head of the presidential guard, General Brice Oligui Nguema, was carried in triumph by hundreds of soldiers, according to images broadcast by state television. International reactions to this new coup in a French-speaking African country were quick: China called for “guaranteeing Ali Bongo’s security” while France, a former colonial power, ” condemned the ongoing military coup”. Russia has expressed its “deep concern” as has the Commonwealth, an organization that Gabon joined last year.
In a video message posted on social networks where he appears clearly worried, Ali Bongo, calls in English all his “friends all over the world to tell them to make noise” about “the people who arrested me”.
“Defend the Peace”
Just after the official announcement during the night of Ali Bongo’s victory in the presidential election on Saturday with 64.27% of the vote, a group of a dozen soldiers appeared on the screens of the Gabon 24 television channel, sheltered within the presidency. Gathered within the “Committee for the transition and the restoration of institutions (CTRI), they “decided to defend peace by putting an end to the regime in place”, announced a colonel of the regular army.
Among the soldiers were members of the Republican Guard (GR), the praetorian guard of the presidency recognizable by their green berets, as well as regular army soldiers and police officers. The soldiers notably considered that the organization of the elections had “not fulfilled the conditions for a transparent ballot” and in particular denounced “irresponsible governance”. They announced the dissolution of all the country’s institutions and the closure of Gabon’s borders “until further notice”.
The “young guard”
The seven men arrested by the putschists embody the “young guard” who formed a group of very close and influential advisers to the head of state since the return of Ali Bongo from a long convalescence following a stroke in 2018. The opposition and civil society regularly accused the members of this “young guard” of having become the true leaders of the country because, according to them, Ali Bongo was very weakened by the after-effects of his stroke.
This coup intervened in the middle of a curfew and while the internet was cut, two measures decreed by the government on Saturday before the closing of the polling stations in order to ward off, according to him, possible “violence”. Internet was restored shortly after 07:00 GMT. Shortly after the soldiers’ statement was read, AFP journalists heard automatic gunfire in several neighborhoods of Libreville. These sporadic shots quickly ceased.
“Gabon is liberated”
In the working-class Plein Ciel district of Libreville, not far from the center, an AFP staff member saw around a hundred people on a bridge, on foot or in cars, shouting: “It’s liberation!” or even “Bongo out!”. To the sound of horns, they greeted and applauded police in riot gear with their faces masked. In the well-to-do district of Akanda, not far from Ali Bongo’s residence, residents stood on their doorsteps, not daring to come out, according to an AFP staff member, laughing soldiers from a unit elite asking them to go home.
In Port-Gentil, the economic capital, on the Place du Château d’eau located in a working-class district and traditional bastion of the opposition, hundreds of people honked their horns, shouting “Gabon is liberated”. Some dance with police and soldiers in uniform, reported Ousmane Manga, an independent journalist contacted by telephone by AFP. The activities of the French mining group Eramet have also been “stopped” in the country, where some 8,000 people, mostly Gabonese, are employed, the company announced to AFP.
Ali Bongo, 64, was elected in 2009 after the death of his father Omar Bongo Ondimba, who had ruled Gabon for more than 41 years. The opposition has regularly denounced the perpetuation of a “Bongo dynasty” of more than 55 years to date. Ali Bongo was seeking a third term, reduced from 7 to 5 years, in Saturday’s elections which included three ballots, presidential, legislative and municipal. A few moments before the irruption of the soldiers on the screens, the official results of the elections had been shelled in the middle of the night, at 3:30 am (2:30 am GMT), on state television without any prior announcement.
According to these results, Ali Bongo’s main rival, Albert Ondo Ossa, won only 30.77% of the presidential vote and denounced “fraud orchestrated by the Bongo camp”.