New leader announced after Gabon coup

In a statement read on Gabonese state television, it was announced that the commander of the Republican Guard, General Brice Oligui Nguema, had been unanimously appointed to head the transitional government.

Nguema, whose father was an officer, completed his military training at the Royal Moroccan Military Academy in Meknes, Morocco, and later graduated from the Commando Training Center in the equatorial jungles of Gabon.

General Nguema became an aide to former President Omar Bongo after his military career and remained in that position until Bongo’s death in 2009.

Nguema, who had a disagreement with Ali Bongo, who took over after his father’s death, was sent to the Rabat and Dakar embassies in Gabon as a military attaché and expelled from the country.

BONGO, LEADER OF THE COUNTRY, HAD CLOSE RELATIONS WITH THE FAMILY

In 2019, a year after President Bongo suffered a stroke, Nguema returned to the Presidential Palace to lead the intelligence unit of the Republican Guard, replacing Ali Bongo’s half-brother Frederic Bongo.

Promoted to commander of the Republican Guard a few months later, Nguema gradually established and strengthened the Special Interventions unit within the Republican Guard, directly reporting to Ali Bongo.

It is known that Nguema has kinship and close relations with the Bongo family for many years.

COUP IN GABON

A group of soldiers, who entered the national television building in the central African country of Gabon early in the morning, announced that they had taken over the administration.

The military, calling itself the “Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions (CTRI)”, announced that the elections held on August 26 were canceled and the country’s borders closed.

The current President Ali Bongo Ondimba won the presidential elections held on August 26 for the third time.

A curfew was imposed alleging that “violence” was practiced in the last hours of the electoral process in the country, and the Internet was restricted while the post-election vote counting process continued.

Father Omar Bongo first came to power in 1967, and when he died in 2009, his son Ali Bongo sat in his chair. The Bongo family ruled Gabon for 56 years. (AA)