By Gerauds Wilfried Obangome Reuters
The African Union on Thursday suspended Gabon’s membership in the future after army officers ousted President Ali Bongo, the primary regional response to the eighth coup in West and Central Africa since 2020.
The takeover ends the Bongo household dynasty’s nearly six a long time in energy and creates a brand new conundrum for a area hit with a wave of coups that Nigerian President Bola Tinubu referred to as a “contagion of autocracy”.
Like different juntas who’ve snatched energy within the area, Gabon’s army leaders are searching for to consolidate energy regardless of worldwide condemnation.
Basic Brice Oligui Nguema, the coup chief and former head of the presidential guard, is because of be sworn in as president on Monday.
“My worry has been confirmed in Gabon that replicate cats will begin doing the identical factor till it’s stopped,” Tinubu, who chairs West Africa’s fundamental regional physique ECOWAS, stated on Thursday.
The African Union’s Peace and Safety Council made a primary transfer on Thursday by barring Gabon’s participation in all its actions, organs and establishments till constitutional order is restored.
Central Africa’s political bloc, of which Gabon is a member, additionally condemned the coup in an announcement and stated it deliberate an “imminent” assembly of heads of state to find out learn how to reply. It didn’t give a date.
Senior officers in Gabon introduced their coup earlier than daybreak on Wednesday, shortly after an election physique declared that Bongo had comfortably gained a 3rd time period in Saturday’s vote. The junta declared the vote null and void, dissolved state establishments and closed borders.
In a while Wednesday, a video emerged of Bongo detained in his residence, asking worldwide allies for assist however apparently unaware of what was occurring round him.
Gabon’s fundamental opposition platform, Alternance 2023, thanked the junta on Thursday for ending the Bongos’ lengthy grip on energy.
However consultant Mike Jocktane added that the coup leaders ought to end what he stated was an incomplete vote rely. A full tally would present that the principle opposition candidate, Albert Ondo Ossa, had gained, he stated.
In official outcomes introduced on Wednesday, Ondo Ossa got here a distant second to Bongo.
Jocktane stated the opposition was prepared to carry talks with the junta “to keep away from a future for our nation even darker than the one now we have been spared”.
BORDERS CLOSED
In an announcement on Thursday, the junta stated it had resumed home flights and restored some state establishments, together with the Constitutional Courtroom.
However land and air borders stay shut.
On Thursday, vans, automobiles and motorbikes have been caught in lengthy queues at Gabon’s border with southern Cameroon, a Reuters reporter stated. At a crossing at Kye-Ossi some hung strains of laundry in between autos as they waited.
“Life is a bit powerful in our vans, we sleep outdoors,” stated Issa Soumaila, a driver from Chad, standing beside vans piled excessive with planks of wooden.
The occasions in Gabon comply with current coups in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger, erasing democratic positive aspects because the Nineteen Nineties and elevating considerations amongst international powers with regional strategic pursuits. The coups additionally confirmed the restricted leverage of African powers as soon as the army takes over.
ECOWAS threatened army intervention in Niger after a coup there on July 26 and imposed sanctions, however the junta has not backed down. Army leaders elsewhere have additionally resisted worldwide strain to revive civilian rule. They’ve managed to carry on to energy and a few have even gained fashionable assist.
A whole lot of individuals took to the streets of the capital Libreville to rejoice Wednesday’s coup in Gabon. The town was calmer on Thursday as individuals returned to work, though the principle intersections and thoroughfares have been guarded by safety forces.
Bongo’s recognition had worn skinny amid claims of corruption, sham elections and a failure to spend extra of Gabon’s oil and mineral wealth on the nation’s poor. He took over in 2009 on the demise of his father Omar, who had dominated since 1967.
France, the USA, Canada and Britain have all expressed concern concerning the coup. However they haven’t made direct requires reinstating Bongo.
The European Union’s international coverage chief, Josep Borrell, stated the election had been filled with irregularities, including that the EU rejected the seizure of energy by drive.
A scarcity of worldwide observers, the suspension of some international broadcasts, and the authorities’ resolution to chop web service and impose an evening curfew after the election raised considerations concerning the transparency of the vote.
