2023-08-30 15:36:09
The president called on the people to defend him, but many came out to celebrate his departure.
Mutinous soldiers claimed to have seized power in Gabon on Wednesday and placed the president under house arrest hours following he was declared the winner of an election that extended his family’s 55-year rule of the oil-rich Central African nation.
In a video recorded apparently from his residence, where he was being held, the president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, called on people to “make noise” in support of him.
But instead, a crowd took to the streets and sang the national anthem to celebrate the coup attempt once morest the scion of a dynasty accused of enriching itself at the expense of the country’s resources while many of its citizens struggle to survive.
The uprising occurred hours following Bongo, 64, was declared the winner of an election marked by fear of violence.
Minutes following the announcement, shots were heard in the center of the capital, Libreville. A dozen uniformed soldiers appeared on state television later and announced that they had seized power.
The crowd took to the streets of the city to celebrate the end of Bongo’s reign with the soldiers.
“Thank you, army. At last, we had been waiting for this moment for a long time,” said Yollande Okomo, in front of soldiers from the elite Republican Guard.
“Long live our army,” said Jordy Dikaba, a young man who was walking with his friends down a street guarded by armed policemen.
Later, Bongo asked for support in a video in which he appeared sitting in a chair with a bookshelf in the background. He claimed that he was at his residence and that his wife and his son were in different places.
“I ask you to make noise, make noise, make real noise,” he said. The recording was shared with The Associated Press by BTP Advisers, a communication company that helped the president with electoral polls.
The soldiers wanted to “dissolve all the institutions of the republic,” said a spokesman for the group, made up of members of the gendarmerie, the republican guard and other factions of the security forces.
The French mining company Eramet announced the cessation of its operations in Gabon and said that it initiated procedures to guarantee the safety of its personnel and its facilities.
Its subsidiaries in the country operate the world’s largest manganese mine and a rail transport company.
According to the private intelligence company Ambrey, all operations at the country’s main port in Libreville have been suspended and the authorities have refused to allow ships to leave.
At the capital’s Léon-Mba international airport, a flight was delayed early in the morning. A man who answered a phone number at the airfield told The Associated Press that flights were canceled Wednesday.
The attempted coup comes nearly a month following uprising soldiers in Niger wrested power from the democratically elected government, and is the latest in a series of uprisings challenging governments with ties to France, the former colonial power of the region.
If successful, Gabon’s rebellion would bring to eight the number of coups in West and Central Africa since 2020.
In his annual Independence Day speech on August 17, Bongo noted that “Although our continent has been rocked by violent crises in recent weeks, rest assured that I will never allow you and our country, Gabon, to be held hostage to destabilization attempts. Never”.
Unlike Niger and two other West African nations ruled by military juntas, Gabon has not been plagued by jihadist violence and was considered a relatively stable country.
It has a population of more than two million people, but regarding 40% of Gabonese ages 15-24 were unemployed in 2020, according to the World Bank.
In his speech in August, Bongo acknowledged widespread frustration over the rising cost of living and listed steps taken by his government to limit fuel prices, lower education costs and stabilize the price of bread.
Gabon is part of the Opec oil cartel, with a production of around 181,000 barrels of crude a day that makes it the eighth largest producer in sub-Saharan Africa.
At a time when anti-French sentiment is sweeping through many of the former colonies, the French-educated Bongo met French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris in late June and shared pictures of them shaking hands. .
France has 400 soldiers in the country running a regional military training operation. According to the French military, its operations were not disrupted on Wednesday.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said Wednesday that “We are following the situation in Gabon very closely.”
The mutinous soldiers promised to respect “Gabon’s commitments to the national and international community.”
the bongo family
Bongo’s family ties to the former colonial power dating back to the four decades of rule by his late father, Omar Bongo. These links have been subject to judicial scrutiny in recent years.
Several members of the family are under investigation in France and some are accused of preliminary charges of embezzlement, money laundering and other forms of corruption, according to the French press.
The trials were prompted in part by the pursuit of justice by non-governmental organizations that have long accused various African heads of state of embezzling public funds and hiding them in France.
Bongo was seeking re-election for a third term. He ruled for two legislators following he came to power in 2009, following the death of his father.
Another group of mutinous soldiers launched a brief and failed coup in January 2019, while the leader was in Morocco recovering from illness.
In last week’s election, Bongo faced an opposition coalition led by Albert Ondo Ossa, an economics professor and former education minister, who had been surprise nominated a week earlier.
Every vote in Gabon since the country’s return to a multi-party system in 1990 has ended in violence.
The clashes between government forces and protesters following the 2016 elections left four dead, according to official figures. The opposition maintains that the death toll was much higher.
Fearing violence, many residents of the capital went to visit relatives in other parts of the country or left Gabon. Others collected food or tightened security at their homes.
Following last week’s vote, Communications Minister Rodrigue Mboumba Bissawou announced a curfew between 7:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., saying that internet access would be restricted indefinitely to tackle misinformation and calls for violence.
NetBlocks, a group that monitors internet access around the world, said service had been “partially restored” following the coup.
New Coup in a French Colony, this time in Gabon. They overthrew the French-installed leader, Ali Bongo. It adds to the previous blows in Niger, Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso. Africa does not want to be subjected to Europe and its looting anymore.
pic.twitter.com/smtK7oW652— Augustine Romo (@agustinromm) August 30, 2023
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