Seized : Gabonese troops who moved in to fill vacuum

Ailing leader Ali Bongo and his family have ruled Gabon for half a century

From his sick bed President Ali Bongo of Gabon has successfully fought off attempts to remove him from office by the country's military. Despite the fact that Bongo has left the country leaderless for almost four months, he believes the status quo should remain unchanged.

In November, Mr Bongo, 59, was moved from a Saudi Arabian hospital to recuperate in Morocco. It was from Morocco that he broadcast a statement last week after months of silence. In it, he appeared to slur some words as he acknowledged his ill health while insisting it was improving.



Yesterday before dawn, heavily armed soldiers took over state television and radio to announce that a National Restoration Council would “restore democracy” in the absence of the president, who has been out of the country since October.

However, government sources quickly said the president was preparing a statement and that the state had “all strategic points under control.” The insurgents were dismissed as “a small group of soldiers”.



Within hours of the soldiers' announcement, the coup leaders were rounded up. This was according to Guy-Bertrand Mapangou, the minister of communication. The government, now in crisis talks, had “taken control of the situation”, according to Mr Mapangou.

Four of the plotters are said to be in custody while a fifth is on the run.

It would be recalled that in his absence, the Constitutional Court transferred part of the powers of the president to the prime minister and the vice president. It was speculated that the attempted coup was a result of wider wrangling among the country’s elites over the state’s future.

Ali Bongo has been president since succeeding his father, Omar, who died in 2009 after ruling for 42 years. Sadly, despite Gabon’s oil wealth, and the president living in a palace which cost $300 million to build, a third of its citizens live on a little over a dollar a day.