2023-08-31 18:55:03
General Brice Oligui Nguema (right) is decorated by the Gabonese Prime Minister, Alain Claude Bilie By Nze, on August 16, in Libreville. -/AFP
PORTRAIT – Appointed head of the transition, this head of the Republican Guard put an end to the powerful Bongo dynasty.
Carried by a cheering crowd in green berets, a distinctive sign of the men of the Gabonese Republican Guard, General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema has just been appointed head of the transition in Gabon. A few hours after the putschists seized power, a press release was read in the courtyard of the presidential palace, a fortress they had protected until then on behalf of President Ali Bongo Ondimba.
On the day of the presidential election results designating the victorious outgoing president, the putschists announced on Wednesday that they had put “end of diet” of President Ali Bongo – placed under house arrest – and, probably, to the fifty-five years of dynastic reign of the Bongo family over Gabon.
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Oligui Nguema, 47 years old and new president of the transition, enjoys strong popularity, at least among the military. Gabonese television broadcast images of men in uniform chanting in the streets “Oligui President” before the announcement…
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