According to French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu, operations are still ongoing “case-by-case.”
In response to the revolution that toppled President Ali Bongo, France’s Ministry of the Armed Forces declared on Monday that French military operations in Gabon are gradually returning.
French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu told AFP that “the actions are gradually resuming, on a case-by-case basis.”
Paris said at the beginning of September that it had halted military cooperation with Gabon’s new government, which took office on August 30 and only hours later reported that longstanding leader Ali Bongo had won the country’s presidential election.
The president who was overthrown had been in power for 14 years and had been given a third term when the revolution took place. The coup leaders nullified the election results and disbanded national institutions, thereby terminating his tenure.
The Gabonese opposition has referred to the election results as a “fraud,” and France has denounced the military takeover of its former territory and asked that they be recognised.
Lecornu had earlier claimed in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro that the operations of the military personnel from Paris stationed in Libreville to train Gabonese forces had been suspended “until the political situation is clarified.” The 400 soldiers stationed in Gabon are from a European nation.
In the meantime, France has consistently refused requests from Niger’s new military leaders to remove its 1,500 troops from Niamey in the wake of a coup in July that heightened tensions between the two nations.
The architects of the revolution in Niamey, which ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, charged Paris with disregarding their demand that French troops leave the nation by September 3.
Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, indicated on Monday that Paris will only remove troops at the request of ousted President Bazoum. Macron has previously referred to the Niger military government as a “illegitimate authority.”
According to Bloomberg, Macron reiterated during the G-20 summit on Sunday in New Delhi, India, “We don’t recognise any legitimacy in the declarations from the putschists.”
The French army minister previously told Le Figaro that the situation in Libreville cannot be compared to that in Niger, but Paris appears to have agreed to cooperate with the new government in Gabon.
“We cannot compare the situation in Niger, when illegitimate soldiers overthrew a president who had been duly elected, with the one in Gabon, where the military’s justification for the coup is the country’s failure to follow the electoral law and the constitution. Because in reality, and I consider the weight of my remarks, there are questions regarding the authenticity of the elections in this nation,” Lecornu told the publication.
