COUP ‘CONTAGION’
Bongo, 64, was last seen in public casting his vote on Saturday. Before the vote, he had looked healthier than his more frail television appearances after his 2018 stroke.
Unlike Niger and other Sahel countries, Gabon, which lies further south on the Atlantic coast, has not had to battle destabilising Islamist insurgencies. But the coup is a further sign of democratic backsliding in the volatile region.
A «contagion of autocracy» is spreading across Africa, said Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, the current chair of West African bloc ECOWAS. He said he was working closely with other African leaders on how to respond in Gabon.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the African Union condemned the events and called on the military to ensure the safety of Bongo and his family, while China and Russia said they hoped for a swift return to stability. The United States said the situation was deeply concerning.
«We condemn the military coup and recall our commitment to free and transparent elections,» French government spokesman Olivier Veran said.
The coup creates more uncertainty for France’s presence in the region. France has about 350 troops in Gabon. Its forces have been kicked out of Mali and Burkina Faso after coups there in the last two years.
French miner Eramet (ERMT.PA), which has large manganese operations in Gabon, said it had halted operations.
Gabon produces about 200,000 barrels of oil a day, mainly from depleting fields. International companies include France’s TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) and Anglo-French producer Perenco.
Concerns about the weekend election’s transparency were raised by a lack of international observers, the suspension of some foreign broadcasts and a decision to cut internet service and impose a night-time curfew after the vote. Bongo’s team rejected allegations of fraud.
On Wednesday, the internet appeared to be working for the first time since the vote. The junta confirmed web access had been restored as well as all international broadcasts, but it said it would keep the curfew in place until further notice.
Shortly before the coup announcement, the election authority declared Bongo the election winner with 64.27% of the vote and said his main challenger, Albert Ondo Ossa, had secured 30.77%.
Gabon’s dollar-denominated bonds fell as much as 14 cents on Wednesday before recovering to trade down 9.5 cents on the dollar.
Additional reporting by Alessandra Prentice, Edward McAllister, Elizabeth Pineau, Felix Onuah, Sofia Christensen, Sudip Kar-Gupta, Liz Lee and Ingrid Melander; writing by Nellie Peyton, Sofia Christensen and Alessandra Prentice; editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Edmund Blair and Mark Heinrich
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