![]() ![]() "She is being held in an unknown place in Gabon," attorney Francois Zimeray told AFP, saying her lawyers were demanding they be given access to the French consulate in Libreville.Ī stroke in 2018 sidelined Bongo from public life for 10 months and led to a very brief, and still unexplained, attempt on power by soldiers. In Paris, lawyers for Sylvia Bongo, a Franco-Gabonese, said they had filed a lawsuit over her "arbitrary detention" and that of her son Jalil. The military has accused them of treason, embezzlement, corruption and falsifying the president's signature, among other allegations. National TV on Friday showed rolling images of the deposed president's son Noureddin Bongo Valentin and other arrested officials in front of suitcases filled with cash allegedly seized from their homes. However, he was able to distribute a video on social media in which he said his son and wife Sylvia had been detained, and appealed to "all friends that we have all over the world. The coup leaders said Wednesday they had put him under house arrest and placed him "in retirement". Dynastyīongo had been seeking his third term in office after coming to power in 2009 following the death of his father Omar. Their new rulers have resisted demands for a short timetable for returning to barracks. Oligui is due on Monday to be sworn in as "transitional president".īut other countries have not acknowledged him as Gabon's legitimate leader and he faces pressure to spell out his plans for restoring civilian rule.įive other countries in Africa - Mali, Guinea, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Niger - have undergone coups in the last three years. The coup leaders said they had dissolved the nation's institutions, cancelled the election results and closed the borders. The ouster came just moments after Bongo, 64, was proclaimed victor in presidential elections at the weekend - a result branded a fraud by the opposition. Oligui, the head of the elite Republican Guard, on Wednesday led officers in a coup against President Ali Bongo Ondimba, scion of a family that had ruled for 55 years. Details of that meeting remained unclear.Įmbassies of countries or organisations that have condemned the coup told AFP that they did not send their seniormost representatives, but rather officials of a lesser rank. He also invited foreign donors, diplomats and members of international organisations to meet with him. "This situation, for me, cannot continue, and I will not tolerate it". He vowed to make sure the overcharged money "comes back to the state. Read more Disputed election sparks beginning of the end of 56 years of Bongo family rule "It is difficult to perceive, at this stage, your commitment or patriotism when it comes to the development expected by our compatriots," Oligui said. Oligui also stepped up contacts with national groups and foreign interests, meeting members of civil society a day after a speech to 200 businessmen, whom he lectured on corruption.īroadcast on state television earlier Friday, he sternly warned business leaders in the oil-rich state against "over-billing" and told them to commit to the "development of the country. ![]() "It is a question of reorganising them in order to make them more democratic." The takeover in Gabon follows coups in Guinea, Chad and Niger, plus two each in Mali and Burkina Faso since 2020, worrying international powers with strategic interests at stake."The dissolution of the institutions" decreed on Wednesday during the coup "is temporary", he said in a speech. Opponents say the family did little to share Gabon's oil and mining wealth. The land, sea and air borders were opened because the junta was "concerned with preserving respect for the rule of law, good relations with our neighbors and all states of the world" and wanted to keep its "international commitments," the army spokesman said on national television.īongo was elected in 2009, taking over from his late father, Omar, who came to power in 1967. The coup - the ninth in the continent in three years - has raised concerns about a contagion of military takeovers across the region that have erased democratic progress made in the last two decades.Ĭoup leaders have come under international pressure to restore civilian government but said Friday night that they would not rush to hold elections. ![]() Military officers led by General Brice Oligui Nguema seized power Wednesday, placed Bongo under house arrest and installed Nguema as head of state, ending the Bongo family's 56-year hold on power. Gabon reopened its borders on Saturday, an army spokesman said, three days after closing them during a military coup in which President Ali Bongo was ousted. ![]()
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