Military Officers Seize Power in Gabon, Threatening an African Dynasty

Military officers said they had seized power in the oil-rich Central African nation of Gabon early on Wednesday, overturning the results of a disputed election that returned the incumbent, President Ali Bongo Ondimba, for a third term in office.

Appearing on state-run TV hours after Mr. Bongo was declared the winner of last weekend’s vote, the officers said they were canceling the result, suspending the government and closing Gabon’s borders until further notice.

Bursts of gunfire were heard in the capital, Libreville, from the vicinity of the presidential residence soon after the announcement. Hours later Mr. Bongo, one of France’s closest allies in Africa, appeared in a video posted to social media, pleading for international help. One of his advisers confirmed it was authentic.

“I don’t know what’s happening,” said Mr. Bongo, 64, speaking from a room filled with gilded furniture at his residence. “I’m calling on you to make noise, to make noise, to make noise — really.”

Gen. Brice Oligui Nguema, head of the elite Republican Guard that is charged with protecting Mr. Bongo, emerged as the leader of the junta. He confirmed that Mr. Bongo and his family were being detained, as were several senior advisers, including one of his sons, Noureddin Bongo Valentin.

Footage posted to social media showed jubilant soldiers hoisting General Oligui onto their shoulders and punching their fists in the air. The coup leader then drove through Libreville, where he was cheered by civilian supporters, some shouting “freedom!”

“Thank you, thank you,” General Oligui said at one stop, then drove off.

If it succeeds, the coup in Gabon would be the latest in an extraordinary run of military takeovers across a swathe of Africa — at least nine in the past three years, including one last month in Niger where President Mohamed Bazoum was similarly overthrown by the head of his presidential guard.

The coup seemed to strike yet another blow to French interests in Africa, following recent coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Gabon was a French colony until 1960, and for decades Mr. Bongo and his family remained staunch French allies, even as France’s grip on other former colonies waned.

French companies dominate Gabon’s oil industry, and at least 400 French troops are based in Gabon, many at a base in Libreville.

On Wednesday a French government spokesman condemned the coup and demanded the election results be respected, but made no further threats. France’s embassy in Gabon recommended that its citizens in the country stay at home.

China, which accounts for about half of Gabon’s exports, also expressed concern about the ongoing coup. So did Russia, which has deployed Wagner mercenaries to several African countries following coups in recent years.

Wagner, which has been shaken by the death of its former leader, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, following the mutiny he led, has no ties to Gabon, although it has a presence at a major port in neighboring Cameroon.

Many of the recent takeovers in Africa occurred in countries that had been destabilized by insurgent violence, like Mali and Burkina Faso, or by intramilitary tensions, like Sudan. But the coup in Gabon was aimed squarely at one of Africa’s most enduring political dynasties.

The Bongos have ruled Gabon for over half a century. Mr. Bongo, 64, was about to begin his third term since becoming president in 2009. He took over from his father, Omar Bongo, who had been in power since 1967.

The voting last weekend was tense, with loud opposition claims of rigging and fears that, as in many previous elections in Gabon, it would end in violence. Many people had left the capital for the weekend, fearing trouble. After the polls closed, the government imposed a nightly curfew and restricted internet access.

Around 3 a.m. on Wednesday, the national electoral authority declared on television that Mr. Bongo had won the election with 65 percent of the vote. It said his main rival, Albert Ondo Ossa, had got 31 percent.

Moments later, gunfire was heard in the center of the city, residents said. Soon after that, the mutinous officers, calling themselves the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions, appeared on the state-run Gabon 24 television station.

“People of Gabon, we are finally on the road to happiness,” a spokesman said.

Several of the putschists wore the uniform of the Republican Guard whose leader, General Oligui, only weeks ago received new French armored vehicles that bolstered the unit’s reputation as an elite force.

Gabon’s next leader will be decided Wednesday afternoon at a meeting of senior generals, General Olgui, the firm favorite, told Le Monde. “There was discontent in Gabon,” he said, accusing Mr. Bongo of “trampling” the constitution by standing for a third term. “So the army decided to turn the page and do something.”

Even so, the takeover came as a surprise to many in Gabon, Africa’s seventh-largest oil producer and a member of OPEC. Residents woke up on Wednesday to news of potentially momentous change after a half-century under the Bongo family. Hundreds openly celebrated.

“It is a feeling of joy, a feeling of freedom,” said Fulgence Mintsa, a 33-year-old banker, at a food stall in Libreville. “When I woke up this morning and people were celebrating, I couldn’t believe it. We’re happy that even the army was fed up with this system.”

Whether France was truly dismayed by the coup, as yet another sign of its waning influence in Africa, or happy to accept the demise of a dynasty that had become a political embarrassment, was not immediately clear. The relationship with Mr. Bongo had wavered in recent years.

The Gabon leader banned exports of raw wood, which eliminated jobs in France, and last year brought his country into the British Commonwealth, a pivot that he heralded as “a new chapter” for Gabon. When he pleaded for help from his home on Wednesday, he spoke in English, not French.

Still, President Emmanuel Macron hosted the France-educated Mr. Bongo in Paris in June, when they were pictured smiling together — a welcome contrast to France’s testy relations with other former colonies.

Newly installed juntas in Mali and Burkina Faso forced Paris to withdraw its diplomats and troops, and France is backing threats of military actions by West African states against military leaders in Niger.

“There is an epidemic of coups in all the Sahel,” Mr. Macron said in a speech on Monday, referring to the turbulent region of Africa that lies south of the Sahara.

Even as Mr. Bongo faced criticism for successive elections that were widely seen as fraudulent, and many of which ended in violence, he was lavishly praised by scientists and conservationists for his stewardship of Gabon’s sprawling, carbon-reducing forests.

Nearly 90 percent of Gabon is covered in rainforests that are filled with elephants, gorillas and chimps. Mr. Bongo, a regular at international climate conferences, introduced sweeping measures to protect those forests and to save the country’s marine areas from overfishing.

In recent years he also tried to monetize the forests, pitching carbon credits potentially worth billions of dollars to foreign businesses and governments.

Thanks to its oil, Gabon is one of Africa’s richest nations on a per capita basis. Yet most Gabonese are desperately poor, with nearly 40 percent of people between 15 and 24 unemployed, according to the World Bank.

The anti-corruption monitor Transparency International scores Gabon at 29 out of 100 — better than its neighbor, Equatorial Guinea, but slightly worse than the average score of 32 for sub-Saharan Africa.

Elian Peltier contributed reporting from Niamey, Niger, Dionne Searcey from New York and Aurelien Breeden from Paris.