Soldiers in Gabon say they've seized power and detained a president whose family ruled for 55 years

August 31, 2023: On Wednesday, Soldiers in Gabon say they’ve seized power and detained a president whose family ruled for 55 years.

The officers who said they represented the armed forces declared on television that the election results were cancelled, borders were closed, and state institutions were separated after a tense vote that was set to extend the Bongo family’s more than half-century in power.

One of the officers, Brice Oligui Nguema, who seemed to be hailed as their leader in a video, told French newspaper Le Monde that he and other generals would meet to pick somebody to head the transitional government, on Wednesday.

Hundreds of people on the streets of the Gabonese capital celebrated the military’s intervention. At the same time, France, Gabon’s former colonial ruler, with troops stationed in the African nation, denounced the coup.

If successful, the Gabon coup would be the eighth in West and Central Africa since 2020. The recent one, in Niger, was in July. Military officers have also seized power in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Chad, erasing democratic gains since the 1990s.

“I am marching today because I am joyful. After almost 60 years, the Bongos are out of power,” said Jules Lebigui, a jobless 27-year-old who joined crowds in Libreville.

The officers stated that they had detained Bongo, who took over in 2009 from his father, Omar, who had ruled since 1967. They also said they had arrested the president’s son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, and others for corruption and treason.

Opponents say the family needs to do more to share the state’s oil and mining wealth with its 2.3 million people. Violent commotion had broken out after Bongo’s disputed 2016 election win and a foiled coup attempt in 2019.

The Gabon officers, naming themselves The Committee of Transition and the Restoration of Institutions, expressed the country faced “a severe institutional, political, economic, and social crisis.” They said the August 26 vote was not credible.

Republican Guard chief Nguema told Le Monde a leader had not been chosen, but a meeting would be held to decide, on Wednesday.

“Everyone will put forward ideas, and the best ones will be chosen, as well as the name of the person who will lead the transition,” he said.

Television images revealed a man who appeared to be Nguema held aloft by soldiers shouting “Oligui president,” using one of his names.