Africa In ‘Coup Chaos’ As Military Overthrows President Of Oil-Rich Gabon

ANALYSIS – Military leaders in Gabon have ousted President Ali Bongo and annulled the Aug. 26 election result that was set to extend the Bongo family's more than 50 years in power. The U.S. State Department said Wednesday evening that the apparent coup in Gabon has U.S. officials “deeply concerned.”

Earlier, in late July, world leaders condemned a coup in Niger, calling for President Mohamed Bazoum – a critical Western ally – to be released. The White House and Pentagon, which has a major military drone base in Niger, still won't call it a coup.

This latest coup in Gabon makes eight coups since 2020 that threaten sub-Saharan stability, especially in the wide belt across Africa known as the Sahel.

The Sahel, a hotbed of Jihadist insurgency, is the hot semi-arid and often resource-rich region that stretches across the south-central latitudes of Northern Africa between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea.

Military leaders have appeared on Gabon national television claiming to have taken control of the country – ousting Bongo, who had just won his third election on August 26, 2023.

The twelve soldiers who appeared in the broadcast – calling themselves members of the “Committee of Transition and the Restoration of Institutions” – said they were annulling the results of the election and dissolving all the institutions of the republic.

Bongo had been in power since 2009, following the death of his father, who had been president since 1967. Both of his previous wins – in 2009 and 2016 – are disputed as fraudulent by his opponents.

Bongo's family has ruled the OPEC member country, rich in oil and manganese, for more than half a century. (RELATED: Congress Warns Biden Oil Ban Could Cripple US Military)

Gabon, a small country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, has a population of about 2.4 million. It gained independence from France in 1960 and has undergone several coups and coup attempts, with the last failed attempt occurring in 2019.

Meanwhile, in the second coup of this year, in July, sol­diers belong­ing to Niger's pres­id­en­tial guard detained President Bazoum inside his offi­cial res­id­ence in Niamey. Bazoum, elected in February 2021, has Western support in the fight against violent extremism, corruption and widespread poverty.

The latest coups against Bongo in Gabon and Bazoum in Niger come after mil­it­ary takeovers in neighboring Mali in 2020 – where coup leaders expelled French and U.N. peacekeepers – and Burk­ina Faso in 2022.

Both of those countries have switched their pro-West­ern relationships to Russia, inviting Wagner Group mercenaries to help fight an Islam­ist insur­gency that has taken over swaths of the Sahel.

In Niger, Bazoum had by con­trast wel­comed French troops and has cour­ted both European and U.S. help in com­bat­ing jihadi attacks. (RELATED: Biden Redeploys US Ground Forces to Somalia)

The coup in Niger follows Bazoum's pro-demo­cracy moves but may be mostly a reaction to his ‘Team Biden-pushed' pro­gress­ive atti­tudes on women's rights and edu­ca­tion.

Niger has become Europe's protection against jihadis – al Qaeda and Islamic State-linked terrorists from the north and west and Boko Haram fundamentalists from the south.

Western officials have praised President Bazoum as someone willing to fight terrorists and tackle the causes of radicalism.

The United States, France and the United Nations have strongly condemned the putsch. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called for the immediate release of Niger's leader.

Meanwhile, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has told leaders of the July 26 coup to stand down or face a possible military intervention.

But the junta, under self-declared head of state General Abdourahamane Tiani, former commander of Niger's presidential guard, instead closed the airspace and pledged to defend the country.

No ECOWAS action has yet been taken. The other African military coups since 2020 include the one in Guinea in September 2021 and the coup in the neighboring central African nation of Chad in April of that same year. A ‘civil war' has also erupted in Sudan this year following an October 2021 coup there. (RELATED: ‘High Bio-Hazard Risk' From Lab Seized By Fighters In Sudan)

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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