Gabon’s President Ali Bongo Ondimba, placed under house arrest by soldiers who deposed him after a coup on Wednesday, calls on “all” his “friends” to “make noise”, in a video posted on social media. We see him there, without being able to determine when the video was shot, sitting in an armchair, and he claims to be in his “residence”.
“People arrested me and my family”
Obviously worried, he said in English: “I am Ali Bongo Ondimba, President of Gabon”, “I am sending a message to all our friends around the world to tell them to make some noise” about “the people who arrested, me and my family”, said in English. Ali Bongo, who, at 64, has led Gabon for more than 14 years, had been proclaimed, a few moments before the putsch, winner of Saturday’s election.
“My son is somewhere, my wife is in another place, and I am at the residence and nothing is happening, I don’t know what is happening,” continues Ali Bongo. “I’m calling you to make some noise,” he repeats three times. His son and close adviser Noureddin Bongo Valentin was “arrested” with six other young members of the professional entourage close to Mr. Bongo, in particular for “high treason”, “massive embezzlement of public funds” and “falsification of the signature”. of the Head of State, announced the putschist soldiers at the end of the morning. The soldiers said nothing about the fate of his Franco-Gabonese wife Sylvia Bongo Ondimba.