News coming in indicates that there has been a coup in Gabon. In a video making waves on the internet, a group of military officers have appeared on national television declaring they have seized power from Ali Bongo, president of Gabon.
Coup In Gabon due to election credibility: FACTS
According to the military officers, the recent general election lacks credibility. Gabon’s election saw a unified opposition front content the current president
The Gabon Opposition candidate, Albert Ondo Ossa had claimed ‘victory’ in the Presidential Elections and renewed the call for Ali Bongo to concede defeat. Gabon’s 2.3 million citizens have been impoverished with poverty and under development for over 40 years.
The military has therefore cancelled the election results all borders closed until further notice and state institutions dissolved. Loud sounds of gunfire could be heard in the capital, Libreville, a Reuters reporter said, after the television appearance.
The media tried to reach the government for their reaction to no avail.
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Coup In Gabon – What The Military Said
“In the name of the Gabonese people … we have decided to defend the peace by putting an end to the current regime,” the officers said on television.
The group has declared themselves members of the “committee of transition and the restoration of institutions”. The state institutions they declared dissolved included the government, the senate, the national assembly, the constitutional court, and the election body.
If successful, the coup would represent the eighth in West and Central Africa since 2020. Coups in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Niger have all undermined democratic progress.
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Ali Bongo is the son of Omar Bongo, who was president of Gabon from 1967 until his death in 2009. During his father’s presidency, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1989 to 1991, represented Bongoville as a Deputy in the National Assembly from 1991 to 1999, and was Minister of Defense from 1999 to 2009. After his father’s death, he won the 2009 Gabonese presidential election.
He was reelected in 2016, in elections marred by numerous irregularities, arrests, human rights violations and post-election protests and violence. The military ousted him from the presidency following the results of the 2023 Gabonese general election, in the 2023 Gabonese coup d’état.