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Who Is Brice Oligui Nguema, The Alleged Coup Leader In Gabon?

Source The Ghana Report

On Wednesday, August 30, Gabon’s Electoral Commission(EC) announced that President Ali Bongo Ondimba had won a third term in office that would see him rule for another seven years as President of Gabon.

A few minutes after the declaration by the EC, army officers appeared on TV to say that they had taken power.

Crowds in Libreville and elsewhere celebrated the army’s action.

Within hours, the generals met to discuss who would lead the transition and agreed by a unanimous vote to appoint Gen Nguema, former head of the presidential guard.

The army officers named General Brice Oligui Nga as the country’s transitional leader.

Gen Nguema was carried shoulder-high through the streets of the capital Libreville by his troops.

The deposed President, Ali Bongo, appeared in a video at his home, calling on his “friends all over the world” to “make noise” on his behalf.

The coup has been condemned by the UN, the African Union and France, which had close ties to the Bongo family.

In 2018, President Ali Bongo suffered a stroke, which sidelined him for almost a year and led to calls for him to step aside.

The following year, a failed coup attempt saw mutinying soldiers sent to prison.

The former French colony is one of Africa’s major oil producers.

About General Brice Oligui Nguema
Gen Nguema, 48, was aide-de-camp to the ousted leader’s father, Omar Bongo, who ruled for almost 42 years until he died in 2009.
Under Ali Bongo, he first worked as a military attache at Gabon’s embassies in Morocco and Senegal.
But in 2018, he was made intelligence chief under the elite republican guard – Gabon’s most powerful army unit – replacing Ali Bongo’s half-brother Frederic Bongo before getting promoted to general.
He was trained at the Royal Military Academy of Meknes, in Morocco.
He also introduced a security reform in the Republican Guard by setting up the Special Intervention Section (SIS), which was directly headed by Ali Bongo.
Nguema, besides military and diplomatic duties, was also entrepreneurial by nature and has been known in Gabonese circles for his millionaire status.
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