African coup leaders on a roll as Bongo drummed out of town

A military takeover of oil-rich Gabon has triggered regional and international panic.

Brice Oligui Nguema is held aloft by his comrades in arms. Picture: AFP

A military takeover of oil-rich Gabon, the latest in a series of coups in African nations with ties to France, has triggered regional and international panic.

The toppling of President Ali Bongo, whose family has run the central African state for decades, will be the eighth in west and central Africa since 2020 if it holds. Analysts warned the takeover could also create further instability in an already volatile region, risk Western strategic interests and invite possible new gains for China and Russia.

Senior officers of the country’s Republican Guard turned against Mr Bongo, 64, shortly after the country’s electoral authorities announced on Wednesday that he had won a third term in office, extending the family’s rule which began when his father Omar Bongo took power in 1967.

The President later appeared in a short video confirming that he was under house arrest at his residence. He spoke in English, appealing to “all the friends we have all over the world” to “make a noise” about the coup.

Celebrations in Libreville on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

Instead, crowds turned out on the streets of the capital Libreville to celebrate the end of a dynastic rule that enriched the vast Bongo family while the country’s 2.3 million population languished among the world’s poorest.

“I am marching today because I am joyful – after almost 60 years the Bongos are out of power,” said Jules Lebigui, 27 and unemployed. He joined others in tearing down election posters promoting Mr Bongo or daubing them with paint. Men brought crates of beer to share with the police and soldiers on duty.

Late on Wednesday a Republican Guard officer, General Brice Oligui Nguema, was named the country’s leader for a “transitional period”. He had earlier told the French newspaper Le Monde that Mr Bongo had been “retired”. Television images showed him being held aloft by soldiers shouting “Oligui president”.

One of Mr Bongo’s sons and other advisers had been arrested on allegations of treason, corruption and embezzlement, the coup leaders said.

Calling themselves the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions, they declared a curfew and temporarily stopped French-speaking channels from broadcasting in the country, accusing them of bias over their coverage of the election. In a televised statement, the coup leaders vowed to respect “Gabon’s commitments to the national and international community” and blamed Mr Bongo’s “unpredictable, irresponsible governance” for their actions.

Ali Bongo appeals to the world. Picture: AFP

World leaders quickly condemned the apparent coup.

Gabon joined the Commonwealth in June 2022, despite never having been a British colony. Baroness Scotland of Asthal, the Commonwealth secretary-general, described the takeover as “deeply concerning”.

China called for the safety of the President and his family to be guaranteed, while Russia said it hoped for a swift return to ­stability. The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said that European ministers would discuss the situation this week. “If this is confirmed, it’s another military coup, which increases instability in the whole region,” he added.

The development creates more uncertainty for France a month after a coup in Niger, where it has 1500 troops, and after being kicked out of Mali and ­Burkina Faso following military takeovers. “We condemn the coup and recall our commitment to free and transparent elections,” a French government spokesman said. France has 350 troops in Gabon.

Thanks to its natural riches, Gabon’s oil export revenue was $US6bn last year, yet a third of its citizens live on $US1.90 or less a day. The Human Rights Foundation described Gabon as a “feudal state” whose vast natural resources were looted to fund the ruling family’s extravagant tastes. Nine members of the Bongo family are under investigation in France, linked to property deals worth $US92m. They deny wrongdoing. Mr Bongo himself has come under suspicion, but as a sitting head of state he was immune from ­prosecution.

In his youth he nurtured ambitions to become a funk singer and in 1977 recorded an album entitled A Brand New Man, now a YouTube curiosity.

Critics say General Nguema is a relative of Mr Bongo’s and has his own links to corruption. The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project wrote in 2020 that the general owned several properties in the Americas worth millions of dollars.

The Times