“Good relations with our neighbours” is what the nation’s new military leadership have stated they seek.
Three days after toppling former President Ali Bongo from office, members of the Gabonese Armed Forces said on Saturday that they had reopened all land, sea, and air borders of the nation.
The Bongo family’s nearly 60-year dynasty came to an end on Wednesday when the police overthrew Bongo and placed him under house arrest. Later that day, General Brice Oligui Nguema, commander of the Republican Guard, was appointed provisional leader of the country as soldiers closed down Libreville’s capital city.
An army spokesman stated in a speech on Saturday afternoon that the new administration wants to restore normal ties with the rest of the world. He said that Gabon’s land, sea, and air borders would reopen “with immediate effect,” saying that the military was “concerned with preserving respect for the rule of law [and] good relations with our neighbours and all states of the world.”
The representative for Gabon stated that the country wishes to uphold its “international commitments.”
The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) has harshly denounced the coup, while the leader of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, warned on Thursday that “copycats will start doing the same thing until it is stopped.”
The overthrow of Bongo is the most recent in a string of effective uprisings in West and Central Africa. In July, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, and Mali all experienced military coups; in 2022, Burkina Faso; and in 2021, Niger. Since Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, and Niger were all once French colonies, public resentment at France’s ten-year anti-terrorist campaign there translated into widespread support for these coups.
Following Bongo’s recent reelection, the Gabonese military felt emboldened to seize control. Army chiefs said that his alleged 64% vote victory was fake and that throughout his 14 years in government, there had been a “deterioration in social cohesion that risks leading the country into chaos.”
Bongo has long been viewed as corrupt by Western observers, and the Freedom House NGO in Washington expressed zero confidence that the deposed president was “elected through free and fair elections.” According to a 2010 US diplomatic cable made public by Wikileaks, Bongo stole millions from the Bank of Central African States.
