The putschists are gradually establishing their power in Gabon. General Brice Oligui Nguema, who overthrew Ali Bongo Ondimba, will be sworn in as “transitional president” Monday, September 4 before the Constitutional Court, the soldiers who took power announced on Thursday.
The new strong man of the country also announced the “gradual establishment of the institutions of the transition” and promised that the country will respect all “its external and internal commitments”. The Transitional President “wishes to reassure all donors, development partners and State creditors that all measures will be taken to guarantee the respect of our country’s commitments both externally interior”, declared Colonel Ulrich Manfoumbi Manfoumbi, spokesperson for the Committee for the Transition and the Restoration of Institutions (CTRI), which brings together all the heads of the army corps.
The African Union is reviewing the situation
Gabon will respect all its commitments on the internal and external plans, promised the committee of the chiefs of the army. Despite these promises, concern is strong internationally. The Peace and Security Council of the African Union met on Thursday on this subject, the continental organization announced in a press release. “At the moment – the AU Peace and Security Council is meeting to examine the situation in Gabon,” said the AU in its press release, broadcast on X (ex-Twitter).
The meeting is chaired by the Commissioner for Political Affairs of the African Union, Nigerian Bankole Adeoye, and the current holder of the rotating chairmanship of the council, Burundian Willy Nyamitwe, the statement added, without further details. On Wednesday, the chairman of the African Union commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, condemned “strongly” what he described as “the attempted coup in Gabon”, an oil-rich central African country which had been run for more than fifty-five years by the Bongo family.