On Wednesday night, a military coup in Gabon installed the commander of the Republican Guard, Gen. Price Oleji Nguuma, as “interim leader,” declaring at dawn that they had seized power and rejecting the results of the presidential election. He won a third term against Bongo, who had been in power for 55 years, while a state of affairs prevails. There is great anticipation about the fate of the country after the end of the Bongo family’s rule.
Amidst a festive atmosphere in the oil-rich nation, the coup plotters announced the “unanimous appointment of the Commander of the Republic Guard, General Price Oleji Nkuma, as Chairman of the Institutional Transition and Restructuring Committee and Head of the Transitional Phase”. The coup plotters did not mention. They restored the internet service and broadcasts of three French media after Bongo’s government cut it off on Saturday evening.
But they maintained a curfew from six p.m. to six a.m. to “preserve peace and tranquility,” while Gabon’s borders remain closed.
Gabonese people and the international community are waiting to learn how long the country will remain under military rule and how power will be returned to the civilian population. Any news on the future of the Central African nation was awaited in Gabon yesterday.
On Wednesday, the military ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba, minutes after his father Omar declared victory in disputed elections that had ruled the country for more than four decades.
Bongo’s future is in question, with the United Nations and China among the parties seeking guarantees of its safety.
Bongo, long portrayed as an irresponsible figure, was elected in 2009 following the death of his father, who amassed a fortune through Gabon’s oil resources.
He was re-elected in 2016 in controversial circumstances before suffering a heart attack in 2018 that weakened his authority.
The coup leaders announced on Wednesday that Bongo had been placed under house arrest and “marked for retirement”.
But in those first hours, Bongo managed to release a video in which he appealed to “all friends around the world to raise their voices” on his behalf.
A military commander, his son and close adviser Noureddine Bongo Valentine, his chief of office, Ian Ghislain N’Golo, his deputy, two other presidential advisers and a senior official of the Gabonese Democratic Party were “arrested.”
He also said that they have been charged with sedition, embezzlement, corruption and forging the President’s signature.
EU foreign affairs chief Joseph Borrell said: “Of course, military coups are not a solution, but we mustn’t forget that Gabon held elections full of irregularities.”
He said tampering with polling results was a civil “institutional conspiracy”. Borrell was speaking ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Toledo, Spain, where they are scheduled to discuss ways to help the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) deal with a military coup in Niger on July 26.
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