2023-08-31 00:12:26
Earlier in the day, the president, Ali Bongo, was placed under “house arrest”, and one of his sons was arrested, in particular for “high treason”.
The putschist soldiers who put “end to the regime in place” in Gabon on Wednesday August 30, dismissing outgoing President Ali Bongo and provoking demonstrations of jubilation in the country, placed at their head the head of the Republican Guard, General Brice Oligui Nguema.
Until this coup, condemned by the African Union and France, this oil-rich Central African country had been ruled for more than 55 years by the Bongo family. The opposition regularly denounces the “Bongo dynasty” in a country where corruption is endemic.
During a crazy day, which began with the nocturnal proclamation of Ali Bongo’s victory in the presidential election on Saturday and punctuated by press releases by the putschists on television, the latter announced the establishment of a regime of “transition”the duration of which they did not specify.
French media restored
On Wednesday evening, the country’s new strongman, General Brice Oligui Nguema, head of the Republican Guard – Gabon’s army’s elite unit – was officially named “president of the transition”, after being brought in triumph by hundreds of soldiers.
The putschists, who had restored internet access in the morning, ordered the restoration of the broadcasting of RFI, France 24 and TV5 Monde, suspended by the government of Ali Bongo on Saturday evening.
They have, however, maintained the curfew in effect since Saturday, now effective from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., on behalf of “the need to maintain calm and serenity”. Likewise, the country’s borders remain closed.
“Bongo out!”
Ousted President Ali Bongo, 64, appeared visibly taken aback in a video posted on social media, where he called all his “friends around the world” has “make noise”. He was elected in 2009 on the death of his father Omar Bongo Ondimba, pillar of “Françafrique”, who had ruled the country for more than 41 years. He was placed in “house arrest, surrounded by his family and his doctors”according to the putschists.
But one of his sons, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, was arrested in particular for “high treason” as well as six other young senior officials of the Presidency, including Ali Bongo’s chief of staff as well as the numbers one and two of the all-powerful Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG).
In Libreville or Port-Gentil, the economic capital, joyful crowds celebrated “the liberation of Gabon”. In the working-class Plein Ciel district of Libreville, an AFP staff member saw around 100 people on a bridge, on foot or in cars, shouting: “Bongo out!”. To the sound of horns, they greeted and applauded police in riot gear and face masks.
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