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Army officers stated that they had seized energy within the oil-rich Central African nation of Gabon early on Wednesday, overturning the outcomes of a disputed election that returned the incumbent, President Ali Bongo Ondimba, to a 3rd time period in workplace.
If it succeeds, the coup in Gabon can be the newest in a rare run of army takeovers throughout a swathe of Africa — not less than 9 up to now three years, together with one final month in Niger, the place President Mohamed Bazoum was equally overthrown by the pinnacle of his presidential guard.
Mr. Bongo, detained inside his residence, issued a video plea for assist. However celebrations erupted within the streets outdoors, as many Gabonese cheered the obvious demise of a household dynasty that has dominated for a half-century.
By night, the officers introduced Gen. Brice Oligui Nguema, head of the elite Republican Guard that’s charged with defending Mr. Bongo, as Gabon’s new chief. Gabonese media recognized him as a cousin of the ousted chief.
A detailed ally of France, Mr. Bongo gained worldwide acclaim in recent times from scientists and conservationists for his stewardship of Gabon’s sweeping forests, which cowl almost 90 p.c of the nation. A member of OPEC, Gabon is Africa’s seventh largest oil producer.
However Mr. Bongo, 64, additionally presided over a regime accused of cronyism and corruption in a rustic the place solely a minority has shared in its nice wealth. Public anger has been simmering for years.
“I don’t know what’s taking place,” Mr. Bongo, seated in an ornate armchair, stated in a video that was launched hours into the coup, and authenticated by an adviser. “I’m calling on you to make noise, to make noise, to make noise — actually.”
A louder noise, although, got here from his foes.
Footage posted to social media confirmed jubilant troopers hoisting Common Oligui onto their shoulders and punching the air. The coup chief then drove by way of the streets of Libreville, cheered by civilian supporters shouting “freedom!”
“Thanks, thanks,” Common Oligui stated at one cease, earlier than driving off.
In addition to holding Mr. Bongo, the army stated it had detained a number of of his advisers together with a son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, on costs of corruption and misgovernance.
The coup was a brand new blow to French pursuits in Africa, following current takeovers in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Underneath Mr. Bongo and his household, Gabon, a French colony till 1960, has for many years remained a staunch ally of France, at the same time as Paris’s grip on different former colonies waned.
French firms dominate Gabon’s oil trade, and not less than 400 French troops are based mostly in Gabon, many at a base in Libreville.
The coup met with instantaneous and near-universal worldwide condemnation. However not like Niger, the place neighboring nations threatened army motion to undo final month’s coup, there was no suggestion of pressure.
A French authorities spokesman demanded the election outcomes be revered. John F. Kirby, a spokesman for the U.S. Nationwide Safety Council, stated the tried takeover was “deeply regarding.”
China, which accounts for about half of Gabon’s exports, expressed concern. So did Russia, which in recent times has benefited from a number of African coups by deploying Wagner mercenaries to prop up shaky army regimes.
Wagner, which has been shaken by the demise of its former chief, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, following the mutiny he led, has no ties to Gabon, though it has a presence at a significant port in neighboring Cameroon.
Most of the current takeovers in Africa occurred in nations hit arduous by militants’ violence, like Mali and Burkina Faso, or by intramilitary tensions, like Sudan. However the coup in Gabon was aimed squarely at one in every of Africa’s most enduring political dynasties.
Mr. Bongo has dominated since 2009, when he took over from his father, Omar Bongo, who took energy in 1967.
The voting final weekend was tense, with loud opposition claims of rigging and fears that, as in lots of earlier elections in Gabon, it might finish in violence. Many individuals had left the capital for the weekend, fearing hassle. After the polls closed, the federal government imposed a nightly curfew and restricted web entry.
When the election authority introduced the outcomes round 3 a.m. on Wednesday, it stated Mr. Bongo had gained 65 p.c of the vote whereas his primary rival, an economics professor named Albert Ondo Ossa, acquired 31 p.c.
Moments later, gunfire was heard within the heart of town, residents stated. Quickly after that, the group of about 12 mutinous officers, calling themselves the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Establishments, appeared on a state-run tv station and introduced they have been taking up.
They stated they have been canceling the election consequence, suspending the federal government and shutting Gabon’s borders till additional discover.
“Folks of Gabon, we’re lastly on the street to happiness,” a spokesman stated.
A number of of the putschists wore the uniform of the Republican Guard whose chief, Common Oligui, solely weeks in the past acquired new French armored automobiles that bolstered the unit’s status as an elite pressure.
“There was discontent in Gabon,” Common Oligui advised Le Monde. “So the military determined to show the web page and do one thing.”
Even so, the takeover got here as a shock to many. After a half-century of uninterrupted rule underneath the Bongo household, residents of Libreville wakened on Wednesday to information of probably momentous change. Many celebrated overtly.
“It’s a feeling of pleasure, a sense of freedom,” stated Fulgence Mintsa, a 33-year-old banker, at a meals stall in Libreville. “Once I wakened this morning and folks have been celebrating, I couldn’t consider it. We’re pleased that even the military was fed up with this technique.”
Whether or not France was really dismayed by the coup as yet one more signal of its waning affect in Africa, or pleased to simply accept the demise of a dynasty that had grow to be a political embarrassment, was not instantly clear. The connection with Mr. Bongo had wavered in recent times.
The Gabon chief banned exports of uncooked wooden, which eradicated jobs in France, and final 12 months introduced his nation into the British Commonwealth, a pivot that he heralded as “a brand new chapter” for Gabon. When he pleaded for assist from his residence on Wednesday, he spoke in English, not French.
Nonetheless, President Emmanuel Macron hosted the France-educated Mr. Bongo in Paris in June, after they have been pictured smiling collectively — a welcome distinction to France’s testy relations with different former colonies.
“There may be an epidemic of coups in all of the Sahel,” Mr. Macron stated in a speech on Monday, referring to the turbulent area of Africa that lies south of the Sahara.
Whilst Mr. Bongo confronted criticism for successive elections that have been extensively seen as fraudulent, and plenty of of which resulted in violence, he was lavishly praised by scientists and conservationists for his stewardship of Gabon’s sprawling, carbon-reducing forests.
A daily at worldwide conferences, Mr. Bongo gained plaudits for his conservation efforts to guard rainforests stuffed with elephants, gorillas and chimps, and to save lots of delicate marine areas susceptible to overfishing.
Lately he additionally tried to monetize the forests, pitching carbon credit probably price billions of {dollars} to international companies and governments.
Gabon’s oil makes it one in every of Africa’s richest nations on a per-capita foundation, but most individuals are desperately poor. Almost 40 p.c of individuals between 15 and 24 are unemployed, in response to the World Financial institution.
The anti-corruption monitor Transparency Worldwide scores Gabon at 29 out of 100 — higher than its neighbor, Equatorial Guinea, however barely worse than the typical rating of 32 for sub-Saharan Africa.
Whether or not that rating will change underneath a army junta is unsure. In 2020 the Organized Crime and Corruption Challenge recognized Common Oligui as one in every of a number of Bongo relations who purchased properties with money within the Washington D.C. space, possible utilizing the proceeds of corruption.
Reporting was contributed by Yann Leyimangoye from Libreville, Gabon, Dionne Searcey from New York, Elian Peltier from Niamey, Niger, Aurelien Breeden from Paris and Eric Schmitt from Washington.
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