What Emmanuel Macron calls an “epidemic” of coups in Francophone Africa is spreading. Not since the Arab Spring have Paris and other Western capitals seemed so overtaken by events, as a string of supposedly stable strongman regimes fall at the hands of ambitious military officers, often cheered on by a new generation disillusioned by unkept … Read more
The leader of a coup that ousted Gabon’s President Ali Bongo was sworn in as interim president and cheered by jubilant supporters on Monday in a televised ceremony designed to cast the military as liberators of an oppressed society. In West and Central Africa’s eighth coup in three years, army officers led by General Brice Oligui … Read more
By Yves Laurent Goma and Sam Mednick | Associated Press LIBREVILLE, Gabon — Mutinous soldiers in Gabon proclaimed their republican guard chief as the country’s leader Wednesday after placing the just-reelected President Ali Bongo Ondimba under house arrest, alleging betrayal and massive embezzlement during his long-time rule over the oil-rich Central African nation. The coup … Read more
Mutinous soldiers in Gabon said Wednesday they were seizing power to overturn the results of a presidential election, and claimed to have arrested the president, whose family has held power for 55 years. The coup attempt came hours after the central African country’s President Ali Bongo Ondimba, 64, was declared winner of an election marred … Read more