General Brice Oligui Nguema, who overthrew Ali Bongo five days ago in Gabon, was sworn in on Monday, September 4, as president of a “transition” whose duration he did not set, promising to install “more democratic institutions” before “free elections”.
“I swear before God and the Gabonese people to faithfully preserve the republican regime”, “to preserve the achievements of democracy”, declared before the judges of the Constitutional Court the brigadier general in the red ceremonial costume of the Republican Guard (GR), the elite army unit he commanded.
Free elections and amnesty for “prisoners of conscience”
General Oligui also promised “free” and “transparent” elections at the end of the transition period and pledged to grant amnesty to “prisoners of conscience”.
Putschist soldiers announced on August 30 the “end of the regime” of Ali Bongo Ondimba, who had ruled Gabon for 14 years, less than an hour after the proclamation of his re-election in the August 26 election, believing that she had been faked. The next day, they proclaimed General Oligui president of a Committee for the Transition and the Restoration of Institutions (CTRI).