Overthrown a week ago, the deposed president of Gabon, Ali Bongo Ondimba, is “free of his movements” and “can go, if he wishes, abroad” for medical reasons, announced on Wednesday 6 September, General Brice Oligui Nguema who was invested transitional president.
Mr. Bongo, 64, in power for fourteen years, had been under house arrest since the August 30 military coup, carried out without bloodshed, less than an hour after his camp declared his re-election in a poll described as fraudulent by the putschists.
The new strongman of Gabon also accuses the family circle, in particular his wife and one of his sons, both in detention, as well as members of his cabinet, of having “massively embezzled public funds” and led the country. in an “irresponsible and unpredictable manner”. The military accuse those close to the deposed president of having manipulated him, in particular by “falsifying” his signature. Ali Bongo has been weakened since a serious stroke (CVA) in 2018.
Press release read on television
“Given his state of health, the former President of the Republic Ali Bongo Ondimba is free to move around. He can, if he wishes, go abroad to carry out his medical checks there,” Colonel Ulrich Manfoumbi Manfoumbi announced on state television, reading a press release “signed” by General Oligui, who led the putsch and was sworn in as transitional president on Monday.
His stroke left Mr. Bongo physically impaired, his right leg and arm in particular moving with difficulty. In 2018, he had disappeared for long months in convalescence and then in rehabilitation in the United Kingdom and in Morocco in particular.
Ali Bongo was elected in 2009 on the death of his father Omar Bongo Ondimba, who had ruled for more than forty-one years this small state among the richest in Africa thanks to its oil but where a third of the inhabitants live below the threshold. of poverty.