Gabon’s oil-producing military took power on Wednesday and placed President Ali Bongo under house arrest minutes after the Central African state’s election commission announced his third term.
After a tense vote without international observers that was set to extend the Bongo family’s more than half-century rule, armed forces officers declared on television that election results were cancelled, borders were closed, and state institutions were dissolved.
France, Gabon’s former colonial ruler with troops in the African nation, condemned the coup, while hundreds of people applauded it.
“I march today because I’m happy. The Bongos are out of power after almost 60 years “Jules Lebigui, a 27-year-old unemployed, joined Libreville’s throngs.
In another statement, cops said they seized Bongo, who succeeded his father Omar, who governed since 1967, in 2009. They detained Noureddin Bongo Valentin, the president’s son, and others for corruption and treason.
Opponents argue the family hasn’t shared the state’s oil and mineral wealth with its 2.3 million residents. Violent turmoil followed Bongo’s 2016 election triumph, and a 2019 coup attempt failed.
Gabon would be the eighth West and Central African coup since 2020 if accomplished. The July Niger incident was the latest. Military coups in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Chad have erased democratic gains since the 1990s.
The Committee of Transition and the Restoration of Institutions, Gabon’s officers, declared “a severe institutional, political, economic, and social crisis”. They called the Aug. 26 vote unreliable.
