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Gabon Military Officers Declare Coup Amid Election Fraud Claims

The commanders said they’d cancelled President Ali Bongo’s third-term win.

Military officers in Gabon claimed to have seized power in a televised address on Wednesday morning. The group of a dozen senior commanders announced the coup after the state’s election body announced that President Ali Bongo had won a third term. The officers said the election results were canceled, state institutions dissolved, and borders closed. In a later statement, officers said Bongo had been placed under house arrest, according to the AFP news agency, while one of the president’s sons had been arrested for “treason.” The Bongo family have ruled in oil-producing Gabon for 56 years and discontent against their leadership has grown in recent years. Ali Bongo’s team rejected claims from the opposition that the latest election had been fraudulent.