Military confirms ousted Gabonese president under house arrest, as Bongo calls for ‘noise’

Army officers in Gabon have confirmed that the ousted civilian president, Ali Bongo is under house arrest.

This is also as the deposed president, Wednesday, dispatched a broadcast message via the internet to Gabonese urging them to make ‘noise’ against the coup plotters.

The officers announced their coup early Wednesday morning on national television channel Gabon 24, just moments after the nation’s election commission had announced that Bongo had won a third term in Saturday’s general elections.

The officers said that the election results were invalidated, all state institutions dissolved and all borders closed until further notice.

“We have decided to defend the peace by putting an end to the current regime,” one of the officers said.

Hours after the initial announcement, the officers released another video claiming they had detained Bongo.

Bongo first took office in 2009, after the death of his father, Omar Bongo who had become president of the oil-rich nation in 1967.

The Central African nation has a population of about 2.4 million people, but with nearly half of it in impoverished despite the country being crude oil-rich.

Saturday’s elections were overshadowed by a lack of international observers, raising concerns about transparency.

Afterwards Bongo’s government curtailed internet service and imposed a nightly curfew across the nation, saying it was necessary to prevent the spread of misinformation.

Gunfire was heard throughout Gabon’s capital, Libreville, after the officers’ initial television appearance.

Residents later poured onto the streets of Libreville to celebrate news of Bongo’s removal.

The declared coup comes on the heels of last month’s military overthrow of President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger, the latest in a series of coups across West and Central Africa since 2020.

President Bongo survived an attempted military takeover in January 2019 as he was recovering from a stroke.

Many observers have readily condemned the message reportedly broadcast by the deposed the leader via the internet calling on Gabonese to resists and make ‘noise’ against the military coup plotters.

According to the commentaries monitored by Oracle Today newspapers, the popular opinion is that the deposed leader deserved what he is getting.

“he shut down the internet in the wake of the rigged elections depriving Gabonese the opportunity to exercise their civil rights of voting, and he is using the same internet to appeal to them to come to his rescue. African leaders and their madness,” they wrote in some of the opinions expressed via Twitter (now X), Wednesday.