Gabon’s prime minister, Ali Bongo, has become the latest in a string of African leaders to be ousted by a military coup in recent years. Bongo, who had just won a third term in power, was ousted by a junta of senior officers who have named General Brice Oligui Nguema – the former head of the presidential guard and Bongo’s cousin – as the country’s new “interim president”.
The coup in Gabon is the eighth in west and central Africa since 2020, and the second – after Niger – in as many months. He is being held under house arrest from where he made an emotional plea for help for him and his family from international “friends of Gabon” to “make noise”.
