The Central African regional bloc ECCAS Thursday condemned using pressure to resolve political conflicts because it known as for a fast return to constitutional order in Gabon.
The Fee of the Financial Neighborhood of Central African States mentioned in an announcement it was carefully monitoring the scenario in Gabon, and that heads of state would maintain an imminent assembly to debate the political and safety scenario.
After military officers mentioned they seized energy and positioned President Ali Bongo underneath home arrest Wednesday, different nations condemned the occasions, together with the US which known as for Bongo’s launch and the preservation of civilian rule.
“America is deeply involved by evolving occasions in Gabon. We stay strongly against army seizures or unconstitutional transfers of energy,” State Division spokesperson Matthew Miller mentioned in an announcement.
Miller additionally famous concern about “the dearth of transparency and reviews of irregularities surrounding the election” in Gabon during which Bongo gained a 3rd time period in workplace.
The mutinous troopers introduced the coup on nationwide tv simply moments after the nation’s election fee declared Bongo had gained.
The officers mentioned that the election outcomes have been invalidated, all state establishments dissolved and all borders closed till additional discover.
Common Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, chief of the Republican Guard, was designated president of the transitional committee.
Oligui is Bongo’s cousin. He had been a bodyguard for Bongo’s late father, President Omar Bongo, and was the top of the key service earlier than turning into the chief of the guard.
Bongo later appeared in a video calling on “associates of Gabon” to “make some noise” to help him. The 64-year-old president, seated in a chair, mentioned he was at his residence and that his spouse and son have been elsewhere.
However the crowds that poured into the streets of the capital, Libreville, celebrated the information of the president’s elimination, with a number of demonstrators saying they have been glad the Bongo household was out of energy.
Bongo first took workplace in 2009 after the demise of his father, Omar Bongo, who had dominated the oil-producing nation for the earlier 42 years.
Opponents say the household has did not share the nation’s oil and mining wealth with its 2.3 million folks.
Gabon is a former French colony and one among its closest allies in Africa.
“France condemns the army coup that’s underway in Gabon and is carefully monitoring developments,” French authorities spokesperson, Olivier Veran, mentioned Wednesday. Véran restated France’s dedication to free and clear elections, as did Nice Britain and Canada. France has about 400 troops in Gabon.
Nevertheless, based on a French accountability group, 9 members of the Bongo household are underneath investigation in France, and a few face preliminary expenses linked to corruption. The household has been linked to greater than $92 million in properties in France, together with two villas in Good, based on the group.
Gunfire was heard all through Libreville after the officers’ preliminary tv look. The U.S. Embassy has suggested Individuals within the capital to shelter in place and restrict pointless actions.
Flights out of Libreville have been canceled, and town’s port has halted operations.
Saturday’s elections have been overshadowed by a scarcity of worldwide observers, elevating considerations about transparency.
Afterward, Bongo’s authorities curtailed web service and imposed a nightly curfew throughout the nation, saying it was mandatory to forestall the unfold of misinformation.
Web entry appeared to be not less than partially restored after the coup announcement.
The declared coup comes on the heels of final month’s army overthrow of President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger, the most recent in a sequence of coups throughout West and Central Africa since 2020. Bongo survived an tried army takeover in January 2019 as he was recovering from a stroke.
Some info for this report got here from The Related Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse.