Soldiers ended 55 years of dynastic rule by the Bongo family on Wednesday. The legitimacy of Ali Bongo, who was declared the winner of a disputed election on Tuesday night, has long been questioned by Gabonese.
Ali Bongo Ondimba had just been declared the winner of the controversial presidential elections in Gabon on Tuesday night, but hours later he was imprisoned in his palace, the victim of the eighth military coup in two years in French-speaking Africa.
“The election results are canceled, all the institutions of the republic are dissolved, the government, the Senate, the National Assembly, the Constitutional Court,” a group of soldiers calling themselves the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions declared at the national meeting. television. First shots were fired in the capital Libreville and the port city of Gentil, then supporters of the coup took to the streets to cheer. Later on Wednesday, coup leaders appeared to have put forward Brice Oligui Nguema, head of the presidential guard, as the new leader.
