Reports of an attempted military takeover against President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who has held office for nearly 40 years, have been refuted by the administration of the Republic of the Congo.
“Fanciful reports indicate that major occurrences are occurring in Brazzaville. The government rejects this false information. We reassure the public that peace is in place and ask people to go about their daily lives in peace, the government stated in a statement on Sunday.
While Nguesso was attending the UN General Assembly in New York on Sunday, rumours of a military coup in the Central African nation started spreading on social media.
These assertions stated that armed personnel started capturing important buildings and administrative buildings in Brazzaville, the nation’s capital.
Ali Bongo, the president of the Central African nation, was deposed last month by troops in the neighbouring former French territory of Gabon. Ali Bongo had held the position for 14 years. This came after tensions between the putschists and the French government, the former colonial power in the West African nation of Niger, which saw President Mohamed Bazoum overthrown in a coup in July.
Nguesso, who is now 79 years old, was elected president of the Republic of Congo in 1979 and served in that position until 1992. After Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea and Paul Biya of Cameroon, the Congolese president, who is the third-longest-serving president in Africa, returned to power in 1997 after a civil war, having first lost Congo’s first multi-party elections in 1992.
The oil-rich country’s constitution was amended in 2015 to remove limits on presidential candidates who are older than 70 and the two-term limit, allowing Nguesso to run for reelection. In the 2021 elections, he won a fourth presidential term, extending his tenure by another five years.
