Ali Bongo has urged his followers and “friends around the world to make some noise” in opposition to the military takeover.
Ali Bongo, the president of Gabon, is under house arrest and surrounded by his family and medical personnel, according to military personnel conducting a coup in the Central African nation on Wednesday.
One of the president’s sons, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, as well as other prominent government figures and several members of the dominant Gabonese Democratic Party have all been detained, according to a statement from the coup’s leaders obtained by AFP.
Allies of the president are charged with “high treason against the institutions of the state, massive misappropriation of public funds, organised international financial embezzlement, forgery, falsification of the signature of the President of the Republic, active corruption, and drug trafficking,” according to the statement.
Just minutes after Bongo, 64, was proclaimed the winner of the contentious presidential election with 64.27% of the vote, officers of the Gabonese Armed Forces declared on Wednesday that they had assumed power and nullified the election results.
Despite having previously survived a military coup attempt in 2019, Bongo has been in power since 2009.
The troops gave the latest coup the justification that it was done to “defend peace by putting an end” to Bongo’s “irresponsible, unpredictable governance.”
In the meantime, the Gabonese president made his first public appearance in a social media video in which he urged his “friends around the world to make some noise” in response to his incarceration.
Although he acknowledged being at home, he said that nothing was happening. I have no idea what’s happening.
The man who orchestrated the coup, Brice Oligui Nguema, the chief of the presidential guard in Libreville, reportedly said that the president will “enjoy all his rights” while in custody.
“He is the head of state of Gabon. He’s retired now. He has full access to his rights. Like everyone else, he is a typical Gabonese, according to Nguema.
Nguema had already been named to head the “Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions” in the formerly French colony, according to AFP.
Nguema, though, said in an interview with Le Monde: “I am not yet declaring myself. Right now, I have nothing on my mind. We will discuss it with all the generals.
