The End of the Bongo Dynasty in Gabon
On 30 August 2023, within minutes of the electoral commission announcing that Ali Bongo Ondimba had won a third term, a group of senior officers appeared on state television to annul the election, dissolve state institutions and place the president under house arrest. General Brice Oligui Nguema, head of the Republican Guard and a cousin of the president, was installed as transitional leader. The family had held power since 1967, when Omar Bongo became president; his son Ali succeeded him on his death in 2009. Gabon is among Africa's larger oil producers with one of its higher figures for GDP per head, yet roughly a third of the population lived in poverty and youth unemployment was severe — the gap between aggregate wealth and its distribution being the grievance the coup exploited. Unlike the contemporaneous seizures of power in the Sahel, which were accompanied by explicit rejection of France, the Gabonese officers avoided anti-French rhetoric and French troops remained. Crowds celebrated in Libreville. The African Union suspended Gabon under Article 30 of its Constitutive Act. Oligui Nguema was elected president in April 2025 in a vote he won decisively, converting the transitional authority into an elected one.
- Year: 2023 CE
- Category: Coup
