The television channel Gabon 24 shows images of Gabonese soldiers carrying General Brice Oligui Nguema, head of the presidential guard, on the shoulders.Image AFP
According to the coup plotters, Bongo is under house arrest and surrounded by his family and his doctors. One of his sons has been arrested for ‘high treason’. No further explanation was given.
On Saturday, President Bongo was re-elected as Gabon’s president with about two-thirds of the vote – set to begin his third term after succeeding his late father in 2009. The Bongo family has been in power in the country for 56 years. The soldiers who appeared on television on Wednesday morning want to end the rule of the family: “We defend the peace by ending the current regime.”
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Joost Bastmeijer is Africa correspondent for de Volkskrant. He lives in Dakar, Senegal.
The twelve soldiers who appeared on the Gabonese television channel Gabon 24 claim to represent the country’s security and defense units. They do not endorse the results of the elections, have closed the country’s borders and intend to dissolve ‘all the institutions of the republic’. It is still unclear what that means, and whether the coup has already been carried out. According to a reporter from the Reuters news agency, shots were heard in the Gabonese capital Libreville on Wednesday after the televised speech by the soldiers.
That speech came hours after the Gabonese Electoral Commission announced that President Ali Bongo had won a third term. One of the soldiers said they made their decision because of President Bongo’s “irresponsible, unpredictable administration,” which they say “results in a continued deterioration of social cohesion and threatens to plunge the country into chaos.”
‘Fraudulent’ elections
The elections in Gabon last Saturday were turbulent: the opposition called the polls ‘fraudulent’, and said that the result was manipulated by the government. Many people left the capital Libreville before the weekend for fear of election violence.
Journalism watchdog Reporters Without Borders says Saturday’s election took place in a “near-total media blackout” as the Bongo government had banned all foreign media outlets from entering the country. Other international observers were also not present to monitor the elections.
French media houses France 24, Radio France Internationale (RFI) and TV5Monde were taken off the air by authorities over a perceived ‘lack of objectivity and balance’ in their coverage of the election. The government also shut down the internet everywhere in Gabon on election day to combat the “dangers of disinformation and manipulation” and imposed a curfew.
Ties with France
The government of oil and cocoa-rich Gabon, located on the west side of Central Africa, maintains close economic and diplomatic ties with former colonizer France. The country, which is Sub-Saharan Africa’s fourth largest oil producer, also exports timber, manganese and uranium.
The coup, after coups in other former colonies such as Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, is seen as another blow to French relations with Africa. French President Emmanuel Macron visited Gabon last March, where he presented his new Africa strategy. He then said he wanted to put an end to Françafrique, the system of political, military and financial resources with which France secured its own interests in Africa, even after the former colonies became independent. In June, President Bongo visited the Paris Elysée, where he again spoke with Macron.
Although father Omar and son Ali Bongo were seen by the French as stable partners and their country is therefore rich in raw materials, the Gabonese population has remained poor in recent decades. Opponents of the Bongos say the family has done little to invest the income from oil and other wealth in their country.
According to the World Bank, nearly 40 percent of Gabonese between the ages of 15 and 24 are unemployed. One third of the approximately 2.3 million people live in poverty. They do not have access to basic services, despite their country having one of the highest per capita incomes on the continent.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called the attempted coup “a major problem for Europe”. If the coup is carried out, “it will be another military coup that will increase instability across the region,” he said ahead of a meeting of EU defense ministers on Wednesday. “The area is in a very difficult situation.”
If successful, the coup would be the eighth coup since 2020 in West and Central Africa. There have been two coups d’état in Mali and Burkina Faso in recent years, and once in Chad, Guinea and Niger. According to the coup plotters in those countries, the coups are a response to persistent corruption, persistent economic uncertainty and dissatisfaction with the handling of security problems.
Gabonese president Ali Bongo last weekend during the elections. Image ANP / EPA
2023-08-30 12:11:15
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