Gabon President Ali Bongo Ondimba was deposed in a military coup on August 30, after the electoral commission declared him the winner of a disputed third term.
Ali Bongo, 64, took over when his father Omar died of cardiac arrest in 2019 while receiving treatment for intestinal cancer in Spain after nearly 42 years in power.
Earlier Michel Stephane Bonda the head of the Gabonese Election Centre (CGE) had declared Ali Bongo as the winner of the August 26 election with 64.27% of the vote with main opposition leader Albert Ondo Ossa coming in second with 30.77%.
The Gabonese soldiers introduced themselves on state TV as members of the CTRI (The Committee of Transition and Restoration of Institutions), they announced the cancellation of the election, closure of all borders, and the dissolution of parliament.
We have observed an irresponsible, unforeseeable governance that has resulted in the steady degradation of social cohesion which risks leading the country to chaos .
We have decided to defend peace by putting an end to the regime in power. We call on the people, the communities of brotherly nations that reside in Gabon as well as the Gabonese diaspora to remain calm and serene”
Hundreds of citizens in Gabon’s capital Libreville celebrated the military coup that ousted the ailing President Ali Bongo.
Later the military coup leaders announced that President Ali Bongo Ondimba had been placed under house arrest.
I’m Ali Bongo Ondimba, President of Gabon and I’m to send a message to all the friends that we have, all over the world to tell them to make noise, to make noise, for the people here have arrested me and my family.
My son is somewhere, my wife is in another place and I’m at the residence. Right now, I’m under residence (arrest, ed.) and nothing happening, and nothing is happening, I don’t know what… what’s going on.
So, I’m calling you to make noise, to make noise, to make noise really. I’m… I’m thanking you, thank you
Ali Bongo Ondimba a short biography
- Born Alain-Bernard Bongo on 9 February 1959 in Brazzaville, Gabon
- Son of former Gabon President Omar Bongo and Josephine Kama
- He was sent to a private school in Neuilly France when he was 9 years old
- Alain Bernard became Ali and his father Omar in 1973, after converting to Islam
- Recorded a funk album titled A Brand New Man with the lead single called “I Wanna Stay With You.”
- Studied law at Pantheon-Sorbonne in Paris
- Joined the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) in 1981
- Minister of Foreign Affairs (1989 – 1991)
- He married his first wife Sylvia Valentin a French citizen in 1989
- He married his second wife Inge Collins, of Los Angeles, California, in 1994 but Collins filed for divorce in 2015.
- MP for Bongoville (1991 – 1999)
- MP for Haut-Ogooué Province from 2001
- Vice-President of the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) from 2003
- Minister of Defence (1999 – 2009)
- Gabon President (2009 – August 2023)
