Gabonese authorities yesterday arrested a group of mutineering soldiers after military officers seized Gabon’s state broadcaster and announced plans to “save a democracy in danger” in what appeared to be a coup against Gabonese President Ali Bongo, France 24 reported.
Order has been restored and Gabonese have been urged to go about their normal business, the French broadcaster reported, citing Gabonese Minister of Communications Guy-Bertrand Mapangou.
The report came hours after Ondo Obiang Kelly, an army lieutenant, read a statement on state TV saying that young army officers were disappointed with a Dec. 31 speech by Bongo that he broadcast from Morocco, where he has been convalescing for two months after a stroke.
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“While he attempted to quickly end the debate on his health, the speech only reinforced doubts about his capacity to handle the heavy responsibilities that come with the position of president of the republic,’’ Kelly said.
That is why the Patriotic Movement of Young Defense and Security Forces decided “to take its responsibility to finally defeat all these maneuvers that are under way to confiscate power,” he said, an apparent referral to senior Gabonese officials who are running state institutions in Bongo’s absence.
The movement urged army officers to seize weapons and ammunition, and join the group, calling on all Gabonese to “take control of the streets” and “save Gabon from chaos.”
Helicopters were circling overheard in the capital and gunfire rang out across the capital, Libreville, early in the morning, prompting most residents to stay indoors. The Internet and mobile-phone lines were cut a few hours after the coup announcement.
“I am locked up in my house like many others, but information I have is that fighting is going on” around the offices of the state broadcaster RTG, former Gabonese prime minister Raymond Ndong Sima said by telephone from Libreville. “Things are still very confused, hence I can’t say for sure whether it is a coup d’etat or a mutiny of the rank and file of the army.”
Bongo has only appeared in public twice since he was rushed to the hospital while attending an investment conference in Saudi Arabia on Oct. 24. He has been in power since elections months after the 2009 death in office of his father, Omar Bongo, who was at the time the world’s longest-serving president.
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