2023 Gabonese coup d’état After Bongo’s victory was reported, Gabonese soldiers said that the elections should be put on hold.

A group of senior Gabonese military officers appeared on television to announce that they had taken power following President Ali Bongo’s re-election on August 30, 2023. © Screenshot, Gabon 24

6:48am Gunshots were heard in Libreville, the main city.
Reporters from Reuters and AFP said that after the military leaders’ TV message, loud gunfire could be heard in the capital, Libreville.

After Saturday’s vote, when Bongo tried to keep his family in power for another 56 years and the opposition pushed for change in the oil- and cocoa-rich but poor country, tensions were high and there were fears of trouble.

Concerns about the fairness of the election were raised by the lack of international observers, the suspension of some foreign broadcasts, like FRANCE 24 and its sister station Radio France Internationale, and the decision by the government to shut down the internet and put a curfew on all of France after the election.
6:43am In a TV speech, soldiers say that all state institutions will be dissolved.
When the officers went on the Gabon 24 TV station, they said that they spoke for all of the security and defense forces in the central African country. They said that the election results had been thrown out, that all borders were closed until further notice, and that all state institutions had been disbanded.

“In the name of the Gabonese people,” the officers said, “we have decided to protect the peace by ending the current regime.”

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One of the soldiers also said that “all the institutions of the republic” had been disbanded.

One of the soldiers said, on behalf of the “Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions,” “We have decided to protect peace by ending the current regime.”

“So,” he said, “the general elections of August 26, 2023, and the results that were cut off are canceled.”

“All of the republic’s institutions have been dissolved: the government, the Senate, the National Assembly, and the Constitutional Court,” he said, adding that the country’s borders would be closed “until further notice.”

Gabon’s army leaders have gone on national TV to say that they are now in charge.

They said they were changing the results of Saturday’s election, in which President Ali Bongo was named the winner.

In an election that the opposition said was rigged, the electoral board said that Mr. Bongo got just under two-thirds of the votes.

If he were to lose power, it would end his family’s 53-year rule over Gabon.

Twelve soldiers showed up on TV and said they were going to cancel the election results and get rid of “all the institutions of the republic.”

On TV channel Gabon 24, one of the soldiers said, “We have decided to protect peace by ending the current regime.”

He said that this was because of “irresponsible and unreliable governance” that was causing “a steady decline in social cohesion” that could lead to chaos in the country.

When his father Omar died in 2009, Mr. Bongo took over.

In 2018, he had a stroke that kept him out of work for almost a year and led people to ask him to step down.

The next year, soldiers who tried to start a coup but failed were sent to jail.