Gabon’s ‘Bloodless’ Military Takeover: What’s Known So Far?
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Army officers, who seized power in Gabon, have named General Oligui Nguema as the Central African country's transitional leader. How did the military takeover unfold and where’s the Gabonese president? Sputnik answers these and other questions.
What's Happened in Former French Colony?
In the early hours of Wednesday, the incumbent President of Gabon Ali Bongo Ondimba was reelected as the country's head for a third term after securing 64.2% of the votes.
Shortly after the announcement of the election results, the Gabonese military delivered a televised address, declaring that the election results had been canceled in connection with the alleged fraud.
The military said that all the state institutions, including the government, the parliament and the court, were dissolved as the so-called Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions (CTRI) has been established.
“Today, the country is going through a serious institutional, political, economic and social crisis," the army officers argued, claiming that the elections "did not meet the conditions for a transparent, credible and inclusive ballot so much hoped for by the people of Gabon."
They stressed that they had decided “to defend peace by putting an end to the current regime.”
“It is brought to the attention of the national and international community that Ali Bongo Ondimba is being kept under house arrest,” one of the army officers said on state TV, adding that the ousted president is surrounded by his “family and doctors.”
Who Will Act as President?
The military later announced that General Brice Oligui Nguema would act as Gabon’s transitional leader. Speaking on national television on Wednesday evening, a CTRI spokesman said that Oligui had been “unanimously” designated as “president of the transition.”
Separately, the spokesperson said that the CTRI would investigate charges against the president’s son, Nourredin Bongo Valentin, who was earlier arrested alongside six other individuals for “high treason” and corruption.
Where is Ali Bongo?
A French news agency aired a video of the distressed Gabonese president calling for help and admitting that he doesn’t know “what’s going on.”
"I'm Ali Bongo Ondimba, President of Gabon and I'm to send a message to all the friends that we have all over the world to tell them to make noise […]. My son is somewhere, my wife is in another place and I'm at the residence [in the capital Libreville]," Bongo is seen saying on the video, as he is seated in what looks like a library.
‘MAKE NOISE!’ DEPOSED GABON PRESIDENT’S PLEA
— African Stream (@african_stream) August 30, 2023
Placed under house arrest, deposed Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba called on "friends" around the world to "make noise" after his country’s military seized power.
He confirmed that he was at his residence (the military had… pic.twitter.com/ToCcyxpQrg
According to him, he is currently under house arrest and “nothing is happening, so I'm calling you to make noise really”. It was not immediately clear under what circumstances the footage had been made.
Gabon's President Ali Bongo attends the first working session of the 18th Francophone countries Summit in Djerba on November 19, 2022
© AFP 2023 / LUDOVIC MARIN
64-year-old Ali Bongo came to power in a 2009 election following the death of his father Omar Bongo, who had ruled in Gabon for 42 years.
How Did International Community React?
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has condemned the “ongoing” regime change in Gabon as “a means to resolve the post-electoral crisis” in the Central African state, according to his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Guterres called on “all actors involved to exercise restraint” and urged the army and security forces to “guarantee the physical integrity of President Ondimba and his family.
Willy Nyamitwe, the chair of the African Union’s Peace and Security Council, in turn convened an emergency meeting with representatives of Burundi, Cameroon and Senegal, following the coup.
In a statement on Wednesday, the African Union said the president of its commission Moussa Faki Mahamat condemned the military takeover in Gabon and called on the country’s army officers to “return to democratic constitutional order.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, for her part, voiced concern about the situation in Gabon and recommended that Russians refrain from traveling there.
“Moscow has been alarmed by the news about sharp escalation of the internal situation in this friendly African country. We continue to closely monitor the developments [in Gabon] and hope for the early stabilization of the situation,” Zakharova underlined.
Echoing her was Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who told reporters that Moscow is concerned over the latest developments in Gabon. “I would not make any general conclusions, but the situation in Gabon is a subject of deep concern, and we are keeping a close eye on what is happening there,” Peskov said.
He spoke as Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin stated that Beijing was monitoring the situation and urged the Gabonese army officers to guarantee the president's safety.
“We call on all parties to the conflict to take into account, first of all, the interests of the people of the country, resolving the contradictions that have arisen through dialogue and consultations,” Wang emphasized.
The same tone was struck by French government spokesman Olivier Veran, who told reporters that Paris denounces the change of leadership “that is under way in Gabon." Veran added that France was following events "with a lot of attention" and that it "reiterates its desire to see the results of the [Gabonese] election respected."
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Wednesday that Washington is “strongly opposed to military seizures or unconstitutional transfers of power,” and urged military takeover to “preserve civilian rule.” Miller added, “The United States stands with the people of Gabon.”
The British government for its part said in a statement that the UK “condemns the unconstitutional military takeover of power in Gabon and calls for the restoration of [the] constitutional government.”
“We acknowledge concerns raised regarding the recent electoral process, including restrictions on media freedom, and urge all parties and citizens to commit to and follow legal and constitutional processes to resolve any electoral disputes,” the statement pointed out.
'Unique' Regime Change
Koffi Kouakou , an Africa analyst and senior research fellow at the Center for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg, has, meanwhile, told Sputnik that one thing that makes the current developments in Gabon unique is that it's “a bloodless” military takeover. Kouakou was apparently referring to the fact that there were no reports of any casualties as the result of the regime change in the Central African nation.
The similar view was expressed by Gerald Horne, Professor of History at the University of Houston, who said in an interview with Sputnik that after President Ali Bongo Ondimba was detained, “they [army officers] are talking about holding a trial and charging his sons with treason instead of them dragging them out into the public square and executing them on sight. This seems to be a different process than we've seen in the past.”
