LIVE UPDATES: All you need to know as Gabon soldiers announce coup

Coup announcement

Gabones soldiers in the wee hours of Wednesday, August 30, 2023; announced that they have seized power in the Central African country.

The announcement was made via national television.

According to the soldiers, they were setting aside results of August 26 presidential election.

Incumbent Ali Bongo, now ousted, had barely hours prior been declared winner of the poll which the opposition claimed was fraudulent.

Gabon’s Electoral Commission declared that Mr Bongo had won a little under two-thirds of the votes.

Timeline of the ousted president:

Ali Bongo was born Alain Bernard Bongo in neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville in February 1959.He grew up Alain Bernard, eight years after his father became president in 1967. Mr Bongo came to power at the age of 50 when his father Omar died in 2009.

His overthrow, if confirmed, would end his family’s 53-year hold on power in Gabon, a major oil-rich and oil exporting country.

He won his first election in 2009 and re-lection under controversial circumstances in 2016.

In 2018, he suffered a stroke which sidelined him for almost a year and lead to calls for him to step aside.

The following year, a failed coup attempt saw mutinying soldiers sent to prison.

His third election despite his recovering health has by this coup been cancelled and he will be exiting office after 14 years in office.

What the soldiers said:

Twelve soldiers appeared on television announcing they were cancelling the results of the election and dissolving “all the institutions of the republic”.

One of the soldiers said on TV channel Gabon 24: “We have decided to defend peace by putting an end to the current regime.”

This, he added, was down to “irresponsible, unpredictable governance resulting in a continuing deterioration in social cohesion that risks leading the country into chaos”.

Information hard to come by because of internet disruption:

According to multiple reports, sounds of heavy automatic weapons fire are being heard in Libreville, Gabon’s capital.

There is little information coming out of the country because of an internet disruption shortly after the end of polls on August 26.

The government said it was imposing the measure to curb the spread of false results and by so doing to save lives and property.

The main opposition leader had called on the president on Tuesday to accept defeat and hand over power barely 24 hours before the coup.

Dissolution of key state institutions:

In the announcement by an unnamed soldier, a number of state institutions were immediately dissolved in the wake of the coup. Among others:

a. The National Assembly i.e. Parliament

b. The Electoral Commission

c. The Economic Council

d. The Constitutional Court

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