The nation of Gabon is on Thursday, August 31, awaiting the course of action by its new military junta a day after it ousted the democratic government, appointed a new leader, and detained long-standing President Ali Bongo in his home.
Recall that the military junta had announced their takeover on national television before dawn on Wednesday morning, August 30 and nullified the election results that just minutes earlier, had given Bongo a third term in power. The results would have extended Bongo’s family’s 56 years in office.
The Gabon coup is the eighth in West and Central Africa since 2020, coming after Niger’s, in as many months.
Majority of these coups have taken place in Francophone countries: Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Chad, ridding the countries of democratic gains since the 1990s and increasing fear among foreign powers that have strategic interests in the region.
Gabon is an OPEC member and a major oil and manganese manufacturer and the just ousted president had made strides to safeguard vast Gabon’s pristine forests and endangered elephants.
Bongo had come into power in 2009 after the death of his father Omar, who had ruled the nation since 1967.
Hundreds of citizens have celebrated the military’s intervention in the streets of the capital Libreville yesterday, but the United Nations, African Union, ECOWAS leader, Bola Tinubu–who is consequently, Nigeria’s president– and France, Gabon’s former colonial ruler which has troops stationed there, have condemned the coup.
