Video – Gabon President Ali Bongo over thrown in a military coup

A group of senior Gabonese military officers on Wednesday announced that they had taken power and detained President Ali Bongo, minutes after the state election body declared  the winner of Saturday’s general election.

Appearing on state-run television channel Gabon 24, the officers said they represented all security and defence forces in the Central African nation. They said the election results were cancelled, all borders closed until further notice and state institutions dissolved.

Loud sounds of gunfire could be heard in the capital Libreville, the Reuters and AFP news agencies reported after the television appearance.

There was no immediate comment from members of the deposed government. Bongo, 64, who was last seen in public when he cast his vote in the election on Saturday, is now under house arrest, the coup leaders have said.

Bongo’s son and close adviser Noureddin Bongo Valentin, his chief of staff Ian Ghislain Ngoulou as well as his deputy, two other presidential advisers and the two top officials in the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) “have been arrested,” a military leader said.

They are accused of treason, embezzlement, corruption and falsifying the president’s signature, among other allegations, he said.

“In the name of the Gabonese people … we have decided to defend the peace by putting an end to the current regime,” the officers said in a statement. As one officer read the joint statement, about a dozen others stood silently behind him in military fatigues and berets.

The servicemen introduced themselves as members of “The Committee of Transition and the Restoration of Institutions”. The state institutions they declared dissolved included the government, the senate, the national assembly, the constitutional court and the election body.

‘Lots of uncertainties’

If successful, the coup would represent the eighth in West and Central Africa since 2020. Coups in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger have undermined democratic progress in recent years.