Gabon on Thursday awaited the following transfer by its new navy junta sooner or later after it overthrew the federal government, named a brand new chief and detained long-standing President Ali Bongo in his residence.
The junta declared the takeover on nationwide tv earlier than daybreak on Wednesday and cancelled election outcomes that minutes earlier had handed Bongo a 3rd time period in energy, and would have prolonged his household’s 56 years in energy.
The coup is the eighth in West and Central Africa since 2020, and the second – after Niger – in as many months. Many of the coups have occurred in Francophone international locations. Army officers have additionally seized energy in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Chad, erasing democratic positive aspects for the reason that Nineties and elevating worry amongst international powers which have strategic pursuits within the area.
Gabon, an OPEC member, is a significant oil and manganese producer whose ousted president additionally made strides to guard huge Gabon’s pristine forests and endangered elephants.
However Bongo’s recognition had worn skinny amid claims of corruption, sham elections, and a failure to spend extra of Gabon’s oil revenues on the nation’s poor.
Bongo took over in 2009 on the loss of life of his father Omar, who had dominated since 1967.
Lots of of individuals celebrated the navy’s intervention within the streets of the capital Libreville on Wednesday, simply because the United Nations, African Union and France, Gabon’s former colonial ruler which has troops stationed there, condemned the coup.
