2023-08-31 04:08:50
Gabon became the last African country to suffer a coup on Wednesday when a group of soldiers announced the suspension of all its institutions shortly after the proclamation of President Ali Bongo as the winner of the controversial elections on the 26th.
“Our beautiful country, Gabon, has always been a haven of peace. Today, this country is going through a serious institutional, political, economic and social crisis,” the coup leaders said this morning in a televised message.
The board, calling itself the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions (CTRI), accused the Gabonese government of governing in an “irresponsible and unpredictable” manner.
“On behalf of the Gabonese people and guarantor of the protection of the institutions, we have decided to defend peace by putting an end to the current regime,” they stressed.
In addition, the military declared the “annulment” of the elections, considering that these elections were not transparent, credible or inclusive.
The message was issued shortly after the Autonomous and Permanent National Electoral Commission (Cenap) proclaimed Bongo’s victory in the presidential vote with 64.27% of the vote, despite allegations of fraud by the opposition.
The leader, whose victory would grant him a third five-year term, prevailed over the candidate of the main opposition coalition Alternancia 2023, Albert Ondo Ossa, who came in second with 33.77% of the ballot.
After the announcement of the coup leaders, the social network X (formerly Twitter) was filled with videos with hundreds of Gabonese celebrating the uprising of the military, who opened internet connections and restored international media broadcasts after the authorities blocked them. last Saturday.
Later, the board confirmed that Bongo is under house arrest, along with his family and his doctor, and reported the arrest of one of his sons, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, and his chief of staff, Ian Ghislain Ngoulou, among others. close people.
The uniformed officers accused the detainees of “high treason against State institutions” and “mass embezzlement of public funds,” among other crimes.
The Gabonese president himself confirmed his arrest and asked the international community for help through a video recorded at his residence and posted on the X social network.
“I have to send a message to all the friends we have around the world to tell them to make noise because these people have arrested me and my family,” Bongo said.
“Right now I am in the residence and nothing is happening. I don’t know what is happening. So I call you to make noise, to make noise, to make real noise,” he added, noting that his son and his wife were in other places, but without giving further details.
At the end of the day, CTRI members announced the “unanimous” appointment of General Brice Oligui Nguema, commander of the Republican Guard (an elite unit of the country’s Armed Forces) as the new president of the transition.
INTERNATIONAL CONDEMN
Reactions around the world have not been long in coming, with the chairman of the African Union (AU) Commission (secretariat), Moussa Faki Mahamat, describing the coup as a “flagrant violation of the legal and political instruments” of the organization.
For his part, the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, also condemned the events, although he warned that the electoral process was irregular.
The high representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, lamented that the coup “increases instability in the entire region” of the central African continent, although he stated that he still did not have enough information.
Likewise, several countries reacted, such as France, which condemned the movement and called to “respect” the result of the elections “when it is known”, according to the French government spokesman, Olivier Véran, in an ambiguous response to the announcements that had been made. done previously.
Russia also expressed its “deep concern” through the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, while Portugal called for the “rapid restoration of normalcy and constitutional order” and Morocco stressed the “importance of preserving the stability of this brotherly country.”
Ali Bongo has been in charge of the country since the death in 2009 of his father, Omar Bongo, who had been in power since 1967.
This is not the first coup faced by the Gabonese president, whose government suffered a coup attempt in January 2019 while the president was in Morocco recovering from an illness, although on that occasion the uprising was put down.
In addition, the coup in Gabon – one of the oil powers of sub-Saharan Africa – is the second in a month in Africa, after the Army took power in Niger on July 26.
And it joins the list of countries that have suffered this phenomenon in the last three years: Mali (August 2020 and May 2021), Guinea-Conakry (September 2021), Sudan (October 2021) and Burkina Faso (January and September 2022).
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