Gabon’s ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba, who has been under house arrest since he was deposed last week, is free Thursday (September 7, 2023) and can embark on a medical trip, the country’s new military leaders said.
Ondimba is “free to move given his state of health,” Col. Ulrich Manfoumbi, spokesman for the transition committee, said on state television a day earlier. “He can, if he wishes, go abroad to carry out his medical checks.”
The ousted president’s health was not immediately clear. He had suffered a stroke in late 2018 that kept him from his duties for months. Local television Gabon24 broadcast a meeting late Wednesday between Ondimba and Abdou Barry, head of the UN Office for Central Africa.
“I found him in good health,” Barry said on his meeting with the ousted president.
The 64-year-old was on Aug. 30 toppled from power amid a resurgence of coups in parts of Africa and shortly after he was declared the winner of a disputed election that would have extended his family’s 55-year reign. He succeeded his father in 2009.
Gen. Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, the recently sworn-in military head of Gabon, met with regional and local officials this week and promised the people of the oil-rich Central African country greater infrastructure and a peaceful transition.
He met with Barry, head of the UN Office for Central Africa, and President Faustin Archange Touadera of the Central African Republic in Libreville. Touadera was designated an envoy of the regional Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).
“Our discussions focused on the current situation of our nation as well as the promising prospects of the transition,” Gen. Nguema wrote of his meeting with Barry on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In places of Africa where troops have promised a protracted transition process, worries remained over military takeovers and the postponed restoration of democracy. The new military ruler in Gabon has also pledged to restore popular rule by holding fair elections, but he has not specified a timetable for doing so.
Nguema promised to bring “real development” to the people whose oil wealth has been largely perceived as being concentrated in the hands of a select few at his meeting this week with senior Gabonese government officials. According to the World Bank, there were about 40% of Gabonese without jobs in the age group of 15 to 24 in 2020.
“We want simple things for the Gabonese people,” he said in a broadcast on the Gabon24 television, promising national health care and improved education and environmental policy. “But to achieve this, you must first have an effective administration.” Ref: AP
