General Brice Oligwe Nguema announced on Wednesday, in a statement broadcast on state television, that ousted Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba is “free to move” and “can travel abroad if he wishes.”
Bongo, who has been in power for 14 years, has been under house arrest since the military coup on August 30 until Wednesday.
Nguema, Bongo’s cousin, is the commander of the coup military forces that carried out the bloodless operation less than an hour after Gabon’s electoral authorities declared ousted President Ali Bongo the winner of the disputed July 26 election.
The coup plotters placed Bongo, a cousin of General Nguema, under house arrest on charges of “high treason against state institutions” and “Mass embezzlement of public funds,” among other crimes.
The coup in Gabon, one of the oil powers in sub-Saharan Africa, is the second to occur in just over a month in Africa, after the army seized power in Niger on July 26.
Gabon has joined the list of countries that have achieved successful coups in the last three years, which includes, in addition to Niger, Mali (August 2020 and May 2021), Guinea Conakry (September 2021), and Sudan (October 2021). ) and Burkina Faso (January and September 2022).
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