This Thursday, the United Nations offered support for the political transition back to constitutional order in Gabon, after the UN representative for Central Africa, Abdou Abarry, met with the Gabonese transitional president on Wednesday.
“I expressed to the transitional president the follow-up of the United Nations system, once we know the roadmap, the calendar and the appointment of the Government,” declared Abarry, in Libreville, capital of Gabon, in a broadcast on state television. . Gabon 24, cited by the EFE news agency.
When the transition process is clarified, UN agencies “will establish the necessary contacts and continue supporting Gabon,” he announced.
Abarry further stated that, “in principle, the United Nations, like other international organizations, condemns unconstitutional changes of power” and “calls for a return to the normal constitutional order.”
According to the UN representative, the country is a key actor in the stability of Central Africa.
After the meeting with Brice Nguema, the UN envoy visited the deposed president, Ali Bongo, at his home in the capital, where he found him “in good health.”
“President [deposto] expressed his gratitude to the UN Secretary General, António Guterres,” said the UN representative.
The United Nations representative met with Bongo after the military junta announced the release of the former president, who had been under house arrest since the August 30 coup.
On Wednesday night, Nguema declared on state television Gabon 24 that the deposed president “can travel abroad to undergo medical examinations” due to “his state of health.”
The announcement came after General Nguema met, on Tuesday, in Libreville, with the president of the Central African Republic (CAR), Faustin Archange Touadéra, whom the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) designated as “facilitator of the political process”. process” in Gabon.
Touadéra demanded, among other things, that the “physical integrity of the deposed president and his entire family be guaranteed.”
Despite condemnation from the international community, including ECCAS, the African Union, the UN and the European Union, Nguema was declared “transitional president” on Monday.
Nguema promised “free and transparent elections” after the transition period, but gave no timetable for those elections.
Abarry, during his diplomatic trip, expressed the hope that “peace, stability and social cohesion can be preserved” in the country after the coup d’état.
The coup plotters took power on August 30, after electoral authorities announced Bongo’s victory in the disputed July 26 elections.
The military, like the opposition, claimed that the elections were not transparent, credible or inclusive and accused the executive of governing in an “irresponsible and unpredictable” manner, thus damaging “social cohesion.”
In addition, the coup plotters placed Bongo, of whom Nguema is a cousin, under house arrest for “high treason of state institutions” and “massive embezzlement of public funds,” among other charges.
Bongo’s family, which became president after the death of his father, Omar Bongo, in Spain in 2009, has been in power since 1967.
Source: TSF
