Gabon coup attempt foiled by loyalists
Two conspirators killed and five others arrested as army restores order
Loyalist forces in Gabon swiftly crushed a coup attempt, as a plot by junior army officers to end half a century of rule by the Bongo family stuttered to an ignominious halt.
Two hours before dawn on Monday, a handful of subalterns from the presidential guard seized control of state radio to inform a nation that was mostly still asleep that power was in the hands of a “national restoration council”.
But it swiftly became clear that the conspiracy to oust Ali Bongo, the ailing president of the central African state, was as poorly executed as it was ill conceived.
Deploying the flowery rhetoric of many a past African coup leader, a young lieutenant identifying himself as Kelly Obiang urged military units and Gabonese civilians on to the streets to support the cause.
“If you are eating, stop,” he told listeners. “If you are having a drink, stop. If you are sleeping, wake up … rise up as one and take control of the street.”
However, despite the perceived unpopularity of Bongo just a few hundred people heeded the call and they were quickly and easily dispersed with tear gas.
As it emerged that the plotters had no backup plan, soldiers in armoured vehicles moved on to the streets of Libreville, the capital, and within a few hours recaptured the radio station.
Two conspirators were killed in the operation and five others were arrested, including Obiang, said state official.
Gabon, a prosperous oil-rich state, has only experienced one coup attempt before, in 1964, but never has a president seemed as vulnerable as Bongo who assumed office in 2009 on the death of his father, Omar, who ruled for 42 years and reportedly acquired some 39 properties in France.
Presiding over an ailing economy, Ali B, as the president is known, was re-elected in 2016 by the narrowest of margins.
In October, 59-year-old Bongo suffered a stroke and has since been convalescing in a Moroccan royal palace.