Fresh details have emerged following the recent development in Gabon where a group of Gabonese Military officers had ousted the democratically elected President, Ali Bongo, shortly after his third-term reelection.
Going through the archive, TRIBUNE ONLINE gathered a group of soldiers had in January 2019 sought to take power in Gabon while the country’s ailing president was abroad, but the government thwarted the attempted coup and got the rebels arrested.
At the time, soldiers had reportedly stormed state radio offices at dawn and called on the public to “rise up”, an appeal made as President Ali Bongo remained in Morocco after suffering a stroke the previous year.
In a video footage obtained on YouTube, Gabon soldiers were seen leaving a studio of state radio after an address calling on the people to “rise up” and announcing a “national restoration council” would be formed, as an ailing President Bongo was out of the country at the time.
If successful the recent coup in Gabon would represent the eighth since 2020 in West and Central Africa, a region that in the last decade had made strides to shed its reputation as a “coup belt”, only for persistent insecurity and corruption to open the door to military leaders.
. TheWitness
