Another coup in Africa as military removes Gabon President

A group of military officers have seized power in Gabon barely four days after the re-election of President Ali Bongo, who was recently declared winner of the Saturday's presidential election in the country.

The junta said they removed the President because the election was not credible.

Bongo, who has been in power since 2009 following the death of his father was declared the winner of the election for his third term in office. 

According to Aljazeera, the junta appeared on national TV, Gabon24 to announce the annulment of the election in the early hours of Wednesday, August 30, 2023. 

The junta also dissolved all state institutions and closed the country’s borders.

Announcing the removal of the President, the junta said, “In the name of the Gabonese people … we have decided to defend the peace by putting an end to the current regime.”

The Bongo family has ruled Gabon for 56 years.

This is coming one month after the removal of a democratically elected president in Niger Republic.

The election before the coup

The presidential election held on Saturday, August 26, 2023, has been described as a "fraud orchestrated by Ali Bongo and his supporters” by opposition parties.

The election was Bongo's third time on the platform of the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), a political party founded by his father, Omar Bongo.

Initially, 19 candidates were expected to participate in the poll, but few days to the presidential election, six of them formed the Alternance 2023 coalition and named an independent candidate Albert Ondo Ossa as their joint presidential candidate.

The election was riddled with irregularities as journalists from neighbouring countries were not allowed to cover the exercise.

The 2019 failed coup

In January 2019, some military officers launched a coup attempt in the country after taking over a national radio station.

The coup plotters struck while Bongo, who was reportedly suffering a stroke was out of the country to receive treatment in Morocco, but the coup was not successful.

Hours after the failed coup, a spokesman for Gabon’s government announced that chief military rebel who announced the coup on radio had been arrested.

According to Aljazeera, two accomplices of the chief military rebel were killed when security forces stormed the radio station where the coup was announced.