Five days after the coup that overthrew Gabon’s president, Ali Bongo, General Brice Oligui Nguema, who led the military takeover, was sworn in on Monday, September 4, as president of the transition. The Army leader addressed the nation in a speech in which he promised to install “more democratic institutions” before “free elections” are held. However, he has not confirmed a date.
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A step that ratifies the control of the Gabonese military junta over the country. This Monday, September 4, the man who led the recent coup against Ali Bongo was sworn in as president of the transition.
General Brice Oligui Nguema took possession of his new position before judges of the Constitutional Court and in a televised ceremony, from Libreville, the nation’s capital.
“I swear before God and before the Gabonese people to faithfully preserve the republican regime (…) Preserve the conquests of democracy,” declared the member of the Army who on Wednesday August 30 led the seizure of power by force.
Amid applause from an audience of officers from the military institution, Oligui Nguema pointed out that there will be “free, transparent and credible elections” to return power to the people. However, he did not specify a date.
Likewise, Oligui Nguema stressed that his Army acted without causing bloodshed. It was a “bloody” blow, he insisted in his speech.
“With the new government, made up of people with experience, we are going to give everyone the chance to have hope,” the general said.
The coup in Gabon is the eighth in West and Central Africa in the last three years, a situation that causes a wave of widespread rejection in the West, which had established strategic relations in economic and security matters, among others, with the previous governments in the Sahel region.
But although leaders of the international community have spoken out against the coup in Gabon, at the same time they have pointed out that the military takeover was preceded by “irregularities” in the elections on August 26, which according to the electoral authorities gave a third term. following Bongo, who comes from a family that has ruled the African country for more than 55 years.
News in development…
With Reuters and AFP
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