rmy officers appeared on nationwide television in Gabon on Wednesday to say they had been annulling the presidential election consequence and seizing energy.

The coup try was going down after President Ali Bongo, 64, was declared the winner of Saturday’s election with 64 per cent of the vote by the central African nation’s election committee.

The opposition had argued the election was fraudulent. An absence of worldwide observers, the suspension of some overseas broadcasts, and the authorities’ determination to chop web service and impose a nighttime curfew nationwide after the ballot has raised considerations in regards to the transparency of the electoral course of.

Within minutes of the consequence being introduced on Wednesday, gunfire was heard within the centre of the capital, Libreville.

A dozen uniformed troopers appeared on state tv later within the morning and introduced that that they had seized energy.

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The troopers supposed to “dissolve all institutions of the republic,” stated a spokesman for the group, whose members had been drawn from the gendarme, the republican guard and different components of the safety forces.

Mr Bongo’s overthrow would finish his household’s 53-year maintain on energy in Gabon.

The coup try happened one month after mutinous troopers in Niger seized energy from the democratically elected authorities, and is the most recent in a sequence of coups which have challenged governments with ties to France, the area’s former colonizer.

Unlike Niger and two different West African nations run by military juntas, Gabon hasn’t been wracked by jihadi violence and had been seen as comparatively steady.

In his annual Independence Day speech August 17, Mr Bongo stated “While our continent has been shaken in recent weeks by violent crises, rest assured that I will never allow you and our country Gabon to be hostages to attempts at destabilization. Never.”

At a time when anti-France sentiment is spreading in lots of former colonies, the French-educated Bongo met President Emmanuel Macron in Paris in late June and shared images of them shaking arms.

The coup’s leaders vowed to respect “Gabon’s commitments to the national and international community.”

Bongo was searching for a 3rd time period in elections this weekend. He served two phrases since coming to energy in 2009 after the loss of life of his father, Omar Bongo, who dominated the nation for 41 years. Another group of mutinous troopers tried a coup in January 2019, whereas Mr Bongo was in Morocco recovering from a stroke, however they had been shortly overpowered.

In the election, Mr Bongo confronted an opposition coalition led by economics professor and former training minister Albert Ondo Ossa, whose shock nomination got here every week earlier than the vote.

There had been considerations about post-election violence, resulting from deep-seated grievances among the many inhabitants of some 2.5 million. Nearly 40% of Gabonese ages 15-24 had been out of labor in 2020, based on the World Bank.

After final week’s vote, the Central African nation’s Communications Minister, Rodrigue Mboumba Bissawou, introduced a nightly curfew from 7 p.m. to six a.m., and stated web entry was being restricted indefinitely to quell disinformation and requires violence.

Every vote held in Gabon because the nation’s return to a multi-party system in 1990 has led to violence. Clashes between authorities forces and protesters following the 2016 election killed 4 individuals, based on official figures. The opposition stated the loss of life toll was far increased.

Fearing violence, many individuals within the capital went to go to household in different components of the nation earlier than the election or left Gabon altogether. Others stockpiled meals or bolstered safety of their properties.