Gabon Junta Swears In Transitional Leader after Coup

Highlights

• Gabon will swear in General Brice Nguema as transitional president on September 4, as the country’s junta decided to re-establish the Constitutional Court on a temporary basis.
• The junta appointed the head of the republican guard as transitional president on Wednesday, hours after seizing power in the OPEC member. 
• The process will lead to a gradual set-up of transitional institutions, a military spokesman said in the capital, Libreville, on Thursday evening.

Source: Bloomberg

Our Takeaway

Less than a month following Niger’s military coup that ousted its president, Gabon’s armed forces took control, marking the ninth military coup in sub-Saharan Africa since 2020. Just four days after Gabon’s contested presidential elections, in which the incumbent Ali Bongo was declared the winner, army officials made a televised announcement, declaring the nullification of the August 26th election and the dissolution of the nation’s institutions. Ali Bongo assumed the presidency in 2009, succeeding his late father, who had held power since 1967.