General Brice Oligui Nguema was named “transition president” in Gabon, through a statement read on state television, at the end of a meeting of the leaders who took power early on Wednesday.
The military junta that now holds power in Gabon “unanimously” elected the general who was head of the Republican Guard, according to the Efe news agency, thus consummating the end of the Bongo family dynasty, which had ruled the country for 55 years. .years.
The Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions, the official name of the military junta, announced the new leader in a statement read by Colonel Ulrich Manfoumbi on Gabon 24 public television.
In the statement, the military appealed to the population to “maintain calm and serenity”, announcing a “new era” and promising to respect “peace, stability and dignity.”
The announcement of the new leaders in Gabon comes on the same day that the president of Nigeria, who holds the presidency of the Community of West African States (ECOWAS), said he was “closely following” developments in Gabon.
Bola Tinubu expressed his “deep concern” over the coup in Gabon and regretted the “contagion of autocracy”, recalling that “power is in the hands of the people and not at the trigger of a gun” and defending a peaceful solution to the disputes.
After a brief interruption, the activities of the French mining group Eramet in Gabon will progressively resume “starting tonight,” the company announced Wednesday.
“Taking into account the information available this afternoon on the events taking place in Gabon, the group has decided to immediately restart rail transport and resume mining activities from Thursday,” the statement quoted by Agence France-Presse indicates.
The African Union “strongly condemned the attempted coup” in Gabon, calling it a “flagrant violation” of the organization’s principles.
The president of the African Union commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, “asks the security forces to take into account their republican vocation, the guarantee of the physical integrity of the President of the Republic, his relatives and his rulers”, read in a statement.
The reaction of the African Union is the latest in a series of statements by the international community, the day that Morocco, Gabon’s traditional ally, stated that it was “closely following” the evolution of the situation, but without condemning the coup. against the president.
The military announced that it had “put an end to the current regime” in Gabon and placed President Ali Bongo Ondimba under house arrest after winning last weekend’s elections.
For 55 years, this oil-rich African nation and member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has been ruled by members of the Bongo family, with the current president succeeding his father in 2009.
Neighbors demonstrated in the streets this Wednesday to support the military, even after the president asked his “friends” to “make noise.”
Gabon has been facing a coup carried out by the military since dawn, which began shortly after the results of the elections were announced on Saturday, according to which the president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, would remain in power, continuing 55 years of domination of power by his family.
A group of Gabonese soldiers announced on television the cancellation of the presidential elections that re-elected Ali Bongo and the dissolution of all democratic institutions.
After verifying “irresponsible and unpredictable governance that translates into a continuous deterioration of social cohesion that runs the risk of bringing the country into chaos (…) it was decided to defend peace, putting an end to the current regime”, -he declared one of the military
The same army, claiming to speak on behalf of an Institutional Restoration and Transition Committee, claimed that all borders in Gabon were “closed until further notice”.
During the television broadcast, automatic machine gun fire was heard in Libreville.
Hours earlier, in the middle of the night, at 03:30 (same time in Lisbon), the Gabon Electoral Center (CGE, in its French acronym) had made public on state television, without prior notice, the official results of the elections. presidential election.
The electoral commission announced that President Ali Bongo Ondimba, in power for 14 years, won a third term in Saturday’s elections with 64.27% of the votes cast, defeating his main rival, Albert Ondo Ossa, with 30.77% of the votes.
The announcement was made at a time when Gabon was under a curfew and internet access was suspended across the country, measures imposed by the government on election day Saturday.
Source: TSF
