“Together, we will work hand in hand to ensure a smooth and exemplary transition”, indicates the statement from the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions (CTRI), published at noon on August 30th. However, less than twenty-four hours earlier, the Gabonese people waited in almost total silence, isolated from the internet and social media, for the results of the three votes which, according to the executive, took place calmly. Who would have thought that Gabon, where the Bongo family maintained networks for more than fifty years, could pass so quickly to military rule?
Protest...
It was still before dawn in Libreville – and before the lifting of the mandatory game scheduled until 6 am – that the Gabon Electoral Center (CGE) finally announced the results of the presidential elections on August 26th. The public television channel Gabon Première, which since election day has broadcast music videos recently interspersed with political broadcasts, broadcast the reading of the results at around 3:30 am. The president of the CGE, Michel Stéphane Bonda, read the results by province and by candidate, before presenting the provisional national figures: the big winner, the outgoing president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, elected for the first time in 2009, achieved a third term, with 64.27% of votes.
Behind him, with 30,77% of the votes, Albert Ondo Ossa, the opposition's consensus candidate. Even before the results were announced, the opposition coalition platform Alternance 2023, which had nominated him to face the head of state a few days earlier, contested them. A disagreement which may have led to the pattern – already classic in Gabon – of post-election crisis, triggering, as in 2016, demonstrations and clashes with the police.
But the responses were more lively, just as the results were announced and despite the time of the announcement, the middle of the night. The population deprived of the Internet and subject to obligation since the elections, waited feverishly and in a “deleterious” atmosphere, according to one of those responsible for communications in the ruling camp. Shots were heard in Libreville, in several neighborhoods, just minutes after the results.
On social media, and in particular among opposition groups, several videos circulated, published indirectly, via VPNs, showing exchanges of gunfire. “They are proclaiming “Ali” the winner, I am stunned,” wrote one user at 4:18 am. But quickly, messages of disappointment with the results turned into calls for protest. “I just called Libreville, apparently on the Charbonnages [un quartier de la capitale] side, it's starting to heat up,” wrote another Gabonese thirty minutes later. Several witnesses confirmed that they were hit by gunfire.
…for the blow
Less than an hour after the results, everything changed. Another public television channel, Gabon 24, broadcasts a press release lasting just two minutes: eleven men in military uniform, as well as another in civilian clothes, announce the “end” of the current regime. “All institutions of the Republic are dissolved, including the government, the Senate, the National Assembly, the Constitutional Court, the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, the Gabon Electoral Council,” they stated. We appeal to the population, the communities of the conditional sister countries in Gabon, as well as the Gabonese in the diaspora, for calm and serenity. »
Coup attempt against Ali Bongo Ondimba at #Gabão
Although the leaders of the military coup have finished announcing the arrest of #AliBongo, what do we know about the situation in Libreville.
More information: https://t.co/4mlSDfZLWz pic.twitter.com/o6Vr6fTqfP
– Jeune Afrique (@jeune_afrique) August 30, 2023
Several of the “members of the Defense and Security Forces” shown on the screen ended up being identified. Starting with the one who presents himself as spokesperson, Colonel Ulrich Manfoumbi, from the Army Support Regiment and Support Command. Then, a second colonel, Aimé-Vivian Oyini, chief of staff of the Republican Guard. But one face does not appear: that of General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, commander of the aforementioned Republican Guard. However, he is the man behind the scenes of this scam.
This brigadier general is well known to the Gabonese. We recognized him in July in a video where we received, from the hands of Ali Bongo Ondimba, the keys to the four new light armored vehicles delivered to his regiment in anticipation of a possible post-election crisis. Then, on August 17th, parading alongside the head of state aboard another blind vehicle on the occasion of the national day ceremony. A few minutes later, he is still behind the president, surrounded by the President of the Constitutional Court, Marie-Madeleine Mborantsuo, and the Prime Minister, Alain Claude Bilie By Nze.
Was he already reflecting on his coup? He is now “president” of the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions, as indicated by his recently created account on X (formerly Twitter) and as the CTRI confirmed in a press release on the evening of August 30th. He publishes the committee's statements and signs them with “Long live Gabon, long live the transition!” “. In images broadcast continuously on national television, AND Widely shared on social media, Omar Bongo Ondimba's former aide-de-camp is praised – literally – to the heavens by soldiers positioned inside the presidential palace. “Oligui, president”, his supporters sing.
Ali Bongo retained
What about the “fallen” president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, and his family? After the announcement of the coup, arrests followed. The wife of the head of state, Sylvia Bongo Valentin, was taken to the presidential palace in the morning. No news of her has filtered since. His son, Nourredin Bongo Valentin, was also arrested, but his place of detention is still unknown. HUHIt is The president's spokesperson and special advisor, Jessye Ella Ekogha, but also Ian Ghislain Ngoulou, Mohamed Ali Saliou, Abdoul Oceni Ossa and Cyriaque Mvourandjiami (the latter was chief of staff to the head of state), are also part of the batch. They are accused of treason against state institutions, international financial embezzlement by an organized gang, forging signatures and even drug trafficking.
Other personalities, particularly at the head of the Republic's institutions, were, according to our information, detained, such as the president of the CGE, Michel Stéphane Bonda, and Faustin Boukoubi, president of the National Assembly. As for Ali Bongo Ondimba, according to announcements by Ulrich Manfoumbi, he is being held in his private residence in La Sablière, north of Libreville. How he collaborated with the post head of state. “I want to send a message to all our friends, all over the world, to tell them to make some noise. To make noise, because here people stopped me and my family. My son is somewhere, my wife is somewhere else and I am he has the residence,” he says in English in a video posted on social media.
Coup d'état in #Gabão: Ali Bongo Ondimba asks his “friends” for help
A few hours after the military announced the seizure of power, #AliBongo confirmed that he was under house arrest.
More information: https://t.co/qi8jkQnsUW pic.twitter.com/Q3xY3M3NRX– Jeune Afrique (@jeune_afrique) August 30, 2023
At the end of the afternoon, the CTRI broadcast a new speech on public television. “Unanimously” designated, Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema is therefore, without much surprise, the president of the transition. First measures announced: the reestablishment of the Internet, cut off since August 26th, but restored at least partially on the morning of August 30th, but also of the international channels whose transmission had been suspended (France 24, Radio France Internationale and TV5 Monde). The CTRI spokesperson insisted on the “need to maintain calm and serenity” in the country and its commitment to “preserving the economic tool”. The installation bell has been brought forward by one hour and comes into effect from 6am to 6pm – compared to 7pm so far – from Thursday 31 August.
On this night of August 30, as Gabonese people struggle to believe in reality in the last few hours, scenes of euphoric citizens appear on state television, in which the CTRI appeared in the middle of the night. Gabon 24, between two retransmissions of the new regime's speech, is currently on the air with microphones on the sidewalks, interviewing the Gabonese people relieved by this change. “We are fed up with the CEO [Parti démocratique gabonais],” says a young man. “We aspire to change. Gabon is free, we are happy! The entire Gabonese population is happy! » says another. The time will come for questions about the perpetrators of this August 30 coup and their motivations more afternoon.
