Gabon foils coup by army mutineers

Bloomberg

Gabonese authorities said they put down an attempted coup by a group of mutineering soldiers who’d seized control of the national broadcaster and vowed to “save a democracy in danger.”
Communication Minister Guy-Bertrand Mapangou told Radio France Internationale that order had been restored, and the capital, Libreville, was largely quiet. His statement came hours after Ondo Obiang Kelly, an army lieutenant, read a statement on state TV saying young army officers were disappointed with a speech by President Ali Bongo that he broadcast from Morocco, where he’s been convalescing for two months after a stroke.
“While he attempted to quickly end the debate on his health, the speech only reinforced doubts about his capacity to handle the heavy responsibilities that come with the position of president of the republic,’’ Kelly said. That’s why the Patriotic Movement of Young Defense and Security Forces decided “to take its responsibility to finally defeat all these maneuvers that are under way to confiscate power,” in an apparent reference to senior Gabonese officials who are running state institutions in Bongo’s absence.
Oil-dependent Gabon is the second-smallest member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. While a majority of the population of less than 2 million lives in poverty, the Bongo family is among the wealthiest in central Africa, according to a French government probe that resulted in the seizure of real-estate assets in Paris in 2016.
The movement urged army officers to seize weapons and ammunition and join the group, and called on all Gabonese to “take control of the streets” and “save Gabon from chaos.”