Rash of Coups Continues as Gabon Becomes 8th Country to be Taken Over by Soldiers

By Damola Emmanuel

As leaders of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, and indeed, the African Union, AU, continue to grapple with the political impasse in Niger Republic, where the military seized power on July 26, 2023, the cancer of coups has struck Gabon, a sparsely populated country on the west coast of Central Africa.

Gabonese woke up Wednesday morning to discover that the military had toppled the government of Ali Bongo Ondimba, who had just been given a third term having been declared winner of Saturday’s election.

The Gabonese election centre had announced that the incumbent president, Ali Bongo, had won a third term in the presidential election with 64.27% of the vote cast.

The head of the electoral body, Mr. Michel Stephane Bonda, also declared that Bongo’s main challenger, Albert Ondo Ossa, came second with 30.77%. But the opposition roundly rejected the results, describing them as fraudulent. Bongo’s team also rejected Ondo Ossa’s allegations of massive electoral fraud.

The senior Gabonese military officers that took over the country of 2.4million, Wednesday morning, hinged their action on the just concluded general elections which they said were heavily flawed and lacked integrity.

Claiming to represent all Gabon’s security and defence forces, the soldiers voided the election results, dissolved the country’s strategic and democratic institutions, and closed all borders until further notice.

Amid the early morning confusion, Reuters reported that loud sounds of gunfire could be heard in the capital, Libreville, after the television appearance of the soldiers.

The fate of President Ali Bongo Ondimba, 64, who succeeded his father, Omar, in 2009, was unknown as at the time of this report.

If the coup succeeds, it would mark the end of the Bongo Family’s 56-year-old grip on power in the country, and make Gabon the 8^th nation in West and Central Africa which democratic institutions had fallen to their military’s jackboot.

In a nationwide television broadcast, the Gabonese army officers, under the aegis of the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions, declared: “In the name of the Gabonese people … we have decided to defend the peace by putting an end to the current regime.”

The coupists continued in French but translated into English by AFP:

“Our beautiful country, Gabon, has always been a haven of peace.

“Today, the country is going through a serious institutional, political, economic and social crisis.

“We are therefore forced to admit that the organisation of the general elections of August 26, 2023, did not meet the conditions for a transparent, credible and inclusive ballot so much hoped for by the people of Gabon.

“Added to this is irresponsible and unpredictable governance, resulting in a continuing deterioration in social cohesion, with the risk of leading the country into chaos.

“Today, 30 August 2023, we, the defence and security forces, gathered as the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions (CTRI) on behalf of the people of Gabon and as guarantors of the institutions’ protection-have decided to defend the peace by putting an end to the current regime.”

Gabon is rich in oil and cocoa but its citizens live in abject poverty, no thanks to corrupt leaders who plunder the country mindlessly.

Regional stability has been grossly undermined by rash of coups in Sahel West Africa. The Sahel region comprises Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria.

Of these, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, and Niger Republic have been hijacked by the military. And ECOWAS and AU have been in a quandary on the effective way to stop the cancer from further metastasis.