Gen Brice Oligui Nguema has been named the head of a claimed transitional government in Gabon after military officers led an armed takeover of the country early on Wednesday morning.
A group of senior Gabonese military officers appeared on TV to announce the coup, after the state election body announced President Ali Bongo had won a third term.
The President has been placed under house arrest and his son has also been detained.
The military officers said they were closing Gabon's borders until further notice and dissolving state institutions.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres “firmly condemns the ongoing coup attempt as a means to resolve the post-electoral crisis”, he said in a statement provided by spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
Mr Guterres expressed “deep concern over the announcement of the election results amidst reports of serious infringements of fundamental freedoms” and said the UN “stands by the people of Gabon”.
Gen Nguema replaced Mr Bongo's step-brother in October 2019 as head of Gabon's Republican Guard, the elite force in charge of protecting the president, his family and other high-profile figures.
He is from Gabon's south-easternmost province of Haut-Ogooue, on the border with the Republic of Congo, the same part of the country as the ousted president.
The general won his spurs as an aide-de-camp to the ousted leader's father, Omar Bongo, who ruled Gabon for almost 42 years until his death in 2009.
The announcement on the Gabon 24 channel came shortly after the Gabonese Elections Centre declared Mr Bongo, who has been in power for 14 years, had won a third term in elections on Saturday.
“The president of the transition insists on the need to maintain calm and serenity in our beautiful country,” Lt Col Ulrich Manfoumbi said on state TV.
“At the dawn of a new era, we will guarantee the peace, stability and dignity of our beloved Gabon.
Another of the officers said: “We have decided to defend peace by putting an end to the current regime.”
He said he was speaking on behalf of the “Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions”.
“To this end, the general elections of August 26, 2023, and the truncated results are cancelled,” he said.
“All the institutions of the republic are dissolved – the government, the Senate, the National Assembly and the Constitutional Court.”
Gabon also resumed the broadcasts of several French media outlets that had been suspended, the televised statement said.
The “temporary broadcast ban” affected France 24, RFI and TV5 Monde, which were “accused of a lack of objectivity and balance … in connection with the current general elections”.
After the announcement, hundreds of people celebrated the end of Mr Bongo's reign in the centre of Gabon's capital, Libreville, where they sang the national anthem with soldiers.
Shopkeeper Viviane Mbou offered the soldiers juice, which they declined.
“Long live our army,” said Jordy Dikaba, a young man walking with his friends on a street lined with police in body armour.
Gabon’s government announced a nationwide curfew and cut off internet access on Saturday evening, as voting in major national elections for new local leaders, national legislators and the next president was wrapping up.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, the chairman of West African bloc Ecowas, is working closely with other African heads of state on how to respond to the situation in Gabon.
Mr Tinubu is watching developments in Gabon and the “autocratic contagion” spreading across the continent “with deep concern”, a representative said, referring to a recent coup in Niger.
The African Union has also called on Gabon's security forces to guarantee the safety of Mr Bongo.
The military takeover in Gabon came only weeks after members of the presidential guard in Niger seized power and established a junta.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, speaking at a meeting of the bloc's defence ministers in Spain, said the coup “increases instability in the whole region”.
“The whole area, starting with Central African Republic, then Mali, then Burkina Faso, now Niger, maybe Gabon, it's in a very difficult situation and certainly the ministers … have to have a deep thought on what is going on there and how we can improve our policy in respect with these countries,” Mr Borrell said.
Olivier Vera, spokesman for the French government, said: “We condemn the military coup and recall our commitment to free and transparent elections.”
Mr Bongo, 64, was elected president in 2009 after the death of his father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, who had been in power since 1967.
He received 64.27 per cent of votes cast in the single-round ballot on Saturday, beating his main rival Albert Ondo Ossa, who won 30.77 per cent of the vote, and 12 other candidates, the head of the electoral authority, Michel Stephane Bonda, announced on state TV.
Voter turnout was 56.65 per cent.
Every vote held in Gabon since the country’s return to a multiparty system in 1990 has ended in violence.
Four people were killed in clashes between government forces and protesters after the 2016 election, according to official figures. The opposition said the death toll was far higher.
In anticipation of post-electoral violence, many people in the capital went to visit family in other parts of the country or left Gabon altogether. Others stockpiled food or bolstered security in their homes.
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The National in Davos
We are bringing you the inside story from the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, a gathering of hundreds of world leaders, top executives and billionaires.
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
US tops drug cost charts
The study of 13 essential drugs showed costs in the United States were about 300 per cent higher than the global average, followed by Germany at 126 per cent and 122 per cent in the UAE.
Thailand, Kenya and Malaysia were rated as nations with the lowest costs, about 90 per cent cheaper.
In the case of insulin, diabetic patients in the US paid five and a half times the global average, while in the UAE the costs are about 50 per cent higher than the median price of branded and generic drugs.
Some of the costliest drugs worldwide include Lipitor for high cholesterol.
The study’s price index placed the US at an exorbitant 2,170 per cent higher for Lipitor than the average global price and the UAE at the eighth spot globally with costs 252 per cent higher.
High blood pressure medication Zestril was also more than 2,680 per cent higher in the US and the UAE price was 187 per cent higher than the global price.
Your rights as an employee
The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.
The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.
If wages are 10 days late, the new measures kick in and the company is alerted it is in breach of labour rules. If wages remain unpaid for a total of 16 days, the authorities can cancel work permits, effectively shutting off operations. Fines of up to Dh5,000 per unpaid employee follow after 60 days.
Despite those measures, late payments remain an issue, particularly in the construction sector. Smaller contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and fit-out businesses, often blame the bigger companies that hire them for wages being late.
The authorities have urged employees to report their companies at the labour ministry or Tawafuq service centres — there are 15 in Abu Dhabi.
Other IPL batting records
Most sixes: 292 – Chris Gayle
Most fours: 491 – Gautam Gambhir
Highest individual score: 175 not out – Chris Gayle (for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in 2013)
Highest strike-rate: 177.29 – Andre Russell
Highest strike-rate in an innings: 422.22 – Chris Morris (for Delhi Daredevils against Rising Pune Supergiant in 2017)
Highest average: 52.16 – Vijay Shankar
Most centuries: 6 – Chris Gayle
Most fifties: 36 – Gautam Gambhir
Fastest hundred (balls faced): 30 – Chris Gayle (for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in 2013)
Fastest fifty (balls faced): 14 – Lokesh Rahul (for Kings XI Punjab against Delhi Daredevils in 2018)
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The years Ramadan fell in May
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Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
