In a video circulating on the internet, the President of the Republic of Gabon speaks in English: “I have been arrested, I ask the population to make ‘noise’ for my release.”
On Wednesday, August 30th, the ousted President Ali Bongo sent a message on social media. Clearly concerned, he says in English, “I am Ali Bongo Ondimba, President of Gabon,” “I’m sending a message to all our friends around the world to tell them to make noise” about “the people who arrested me, me and my family,” he says in English.
Ali Bongo, who has been leading Gabon for over 14 years at the age of 64, had been declared the winner of Saturday’s election just moments before the coup. “My son is somewhere, my wife is in another place, and I am at the residence and nothing is happening, I don’t know what is happening,” Mr. Bongo continues. “I’m calling on you to make noise,” he repeats three times.
His son and close advisor Noureddin Bongo Valentin was “arrested” along with six other young members of Mr. Bongo’s close professional circle, notably for “high treason,” “massive embezzlement of public funds,” and “forgery of the signature” of the head of state, the coup-making military announced later that morning. The military did not mention the fate of his Franco-Gabonese wife, Sylvia Bongo Ondimba.
