Gabon on Thursday awaited the next move by its new military junta one day after it overthrew President Ali Bongo Ondimba.
The junta, which calls itself the Patriotic Movement of the Defence and Restoration of Democracy (MPDD), said in a statement that it had taken power because Bongo was “incapacitated” and that it would hold elections within 60 days.
The statement was read on state television by Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Obiang, who said the junta had dissolved the government and parliament and suspended the constitution.
WHO IS ALI BONGO
Ali Bongo Ondimba was the third president of Gabon from 2009 to 2023. He was the son of Omar Bongo, who was president of Gabon from 1967 until his death in 2009.
Ali Bongo Ondimba was born in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, on February 9, 1959. He studied at the Lycée National de Libreville and the École Militaire Interarmes de Yaoundé in Cameroon. He also studied at the International University of Monaco and the University of Paris-Dauphine.
After his father’s death, he won the 2009 Gabonese presidential election which was marked by controversy. He was accused of corruption and nepotism. He was also criticized for his handling of the economy. In 2016, he was re-elected in a disputed election.
In August 2023, Ali Bongo Ondimba was put under house arrest by members of his presidential guard in an ongoing coup attempt. He was later declared “incapacitated” by the coup leaders.
Brice Clothaire Oligui Nguema, the commander-in-chief of the Gabonese Republican Guard – the country’s most powerful security unit – and a cousin to Bongo, is the ringleader of the attempted coup.
Nguema is one of the most influential and enigmatic figures in the country today. The son of a military officer, he trained at the Royal Military Academy of Meknes, in Morocco.
Nguema then served as Bongo’s “aides-de-camp” to a commander in former President Omar Bongo’s Republican Guard, until the former Gabonese leader’s death in 2009.
SOURCE: REUTERS, AFRICA NEWS, ALJAZEERA