2023-08-30 11:29:00
(CNN) — Gabonese military officers appeared on national television on Wednesday to declare they were seizing power, prompting celebrations and reports of gunfire in the streets of the capital.
The announcement came just minutes after President Ali Bongo Ondimba, also known as Ali Bongo, was deemed the winner of a disputed election, extending his family’s half-century rule of the Central African nation.
The military, claiming to represent the country’s “defense and security forces,” made the announcement in a televised speech on the Gabon24 news channel. He was seen by CNN on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“On behalf of the Gabonese people and guarantor of the protection of the institutions, the CTRI [Comité para la Transición y Restauración de las Instituciones] He has decided to defend peace by putting an end to the current regime,” a military official said on the broadcast.
Shortly after, a group of coup leaders announced that Bongo was placed under house arrest.
“The national and international community is informed that Ali Bongo Ondimba is under house arrest,” an anonymous spokesman for the junta said on state television Wednesday morning.
The ousted president is surrounded by his “family and doctors,” the spokesman added.
CNN cannot independently confirm the video and has not yet been able to reach the Gabonese government for comment.
In the broadcast, the military official said that the election results would be annulled and the country’s borders would be closed.
“All the institutions of the Republic are dissolved: in particular the Government, the Senate, the National Assembly, the Constitutional Court, the Economic, Social and Environmental Council and the Electoral Council of Gabon,” said the official.
“We call on the people of Gabon, the communities of neighboring countries living in Gabon, as well as the Gabonese diaspora, to remain calm.”
Loud shots were heard in the capital Libreville, a Archyde.com journalist said, after the television appearance.
People in Gabon were seen dancing and celebrating in the streets of their capital, according to videos shared with CNN and posted on social media.
In video obtained by CNN, people can be seen chanting “Free!” and waving the Gabonese flag in the Nzeng Ayong district of the capital, alongside military vehicles.
Five West and Central African countries have already been taken over by military juntas in the last three years, five of them former French colonies. The coups in Little onesGuinea, Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger have undermined democratic progress in recent years.
Most recently, Niger’s military junta seized control of the West African country in late July, prompting the African Union to suspend Niger’s membership in the group of 55 member states. Earlier this month, Niger’s military ruler proposed a return to democracy within three years, saying the principles of the transition would be decided within the next 30 days.
The long government of Ali Bongo in Gabon
Earlier on Wednesday, Gabon’s electoral body said Bongo had won the presidential election with 64.27% of the vote, Archyde.com reported, after a delay-plagued general election that the opposition denounced as rigged.
Bongo’s main rival, Albert Ondo Ossa, came in second with 30.77% of the vote, the electoral body reported. Bongo’s team had denied Ondo Ossa’s accusations of electoral irregularities.
Ali Bongo, 64, replaced his father, Omar Bongo, who died of cardiac arrest while receiving treatment for intestinal cancer at a Spanish clinic in 2009, after nearly 42 years in the role.
Father Bongo came to power in 1967, seven years after the country’s independence from France.
He ruled the small nation with an iron fist, imposing a one-party system for years and only allowing multi-party rule in 1991, though his party retained control of the government.
Ali Bongo began his political career in 1981, serving as foreign minister and congressman from 1989 to 1991, according to the website of the Gabon embassy in the United States. He was defense minister since 1999, before becoming president in 2009.
Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on September 21, 2022. (Credit: Brendan McDermid/Archyde.com/File)
contested election
In this week’s election, Ali Bongo faced 18 challengers, six of whom had backed Ondo Ossa, a former minister and university professor, in an effort to narrow the race. Many in the opposition were pressing for change in this oil-rich but poverty-stricken nation of 2.3 million.
Tensions were rising amid fears of unrest after the Aug. 27 vote, with international observers complaining of a lack of transparency.
Before the election, the non-profit organization Reporters Without Borders condemned the Gabonese government for obstructing foreign press coverage of the event.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on Wednesday that “if it is confirmed (that) (the situation in Gabon) it is another military coup”, “it would increase instability throughout the region.”
“It is an issue that will be put on the table and we will discuss it,” Borrell told reporters ahead of an EU defense ministerial meeting in Toledo, Spain.
“The whole area, starting with the Central African Republic, then Mali, then Burkina Faso, now Niger and maybe Gabon, it’s a very difficult situation,” Borrell said. “Defense ministers and foreign ministers need to think deeply about what is happening there. And how can we improve the policy with these countries”.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said her country was following the situation in Gabon “very closely.”
This is far from the first time Gabon has seen a power struggle or unrest over the Bongo government, which has been frequently questioned by critics.
In 2016, the parliament building was torched when violent street protests broke out against Bongo’s disputed re-election to his second term. At that time, the government shut down Internet access for several days.
A coup attempt occurred in 2019, when a group of soldiers and military officers stormed the headquarters of state radio and television, took staff hostage, and declared that they had taken control of the nation.
They cited their dissatisfaction with Bongo as president and vowed to “restore democracy” to the country, before Gabon’s defense and security forces intervened to end the takeover and rescue the hostages. As a result, two soldiers were killed and eight military officers were arrested.
— CNN’s Joseph Ataman and Jake Kwon contributed to this report.
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