The Gabon junta named General Brice Oligui Nguema as transition leader, soldiers said on national television.
He is from Haut-Ogooue, Gabon’s southeastern most province, which borders the Republic of Congo. Bongo is from the same region of the country.
In October 2019, he took over as Chief of Gabon’s Republican Guard from Bongo’s stepbrother. The president, his family, and other high-profile officials are all protected by the elite force.
Nguema initiated an operation called “clean hands” to combat alleged state-led theft shortly after taking on the new post in 2019.
Nguema was named in a 2020 investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a global network of investigative journalists, which claimed that members of the Bongo family and their close circle purchased costly real estate in the United States using cash stashes. For more than a half-century, the Bongo family has dominated oil-rich Gabon. Requests for comment were not returned by any of the accused.
While Nguema has not read any speeches, he was among the officers who announced the coup immediately. The organization, known as the Committee of Transition and Institutional Restoration, claimed that the August 26 election was not credible and that Gabon was in a “severe institutional, political, economic, and social crisis.”
Nguema told the French daily Le Monde on Wednesday that citizens were dissatisfied with their government. He cited Bongo’s deteriorating health following a stroke in 2018 and claimed that the president’s bid for a third term violated the constitution.
“Everyone talks about this, but no one takes responsibility,” he remarked. “So the army decided to turn the page.”
