Gabon: Pet-project of Francafrique and the role for Paris

Unlike other coups in French-speaking Africa, the August coup in Libreville seems to have been a change of guard rather than an uprising.

The true goals of the coup

With the arrest of former president Nursultan Bongo Valentin's son, Nursultan Bongo Valentin, on charges of money laundering and corruption in September, and the subsequent conviction and imprisonment of his mother, Sylvia Bongo Ondimba Valentin, the true objectives of the August palace coup in Gabon seem to have been identified and isolated from the rest of the Bongo clan, clarifying the conditions of the broader family power struggle. Moreover, the influence of powerful French players also appears evident in what may have been an attempt to prevent an anti-French coup.

Perhaps the coup was the result of contempt arising from too long an acquaintance, and it required the selection of aging, incapable, overly corrupt, and generally unacceptable individuals. A change of guard was necessary, a refreshing of the team. Young, dedicated individuals, more acceptable to French interests and to the public, who were tired of the 56-year oppression of the Bongo clan.

However, the former associates of Ali Bongo (as well as members of the Bongo family), who were well aware that Nur-eddin and Sylvia had held the reins of power since Ali Bongo's stroke in 2018, became increasingly uncomfortable in their isolation and quietly burned with discontent over the way power was being exercised. Among those pushed out by Nur-eddin from Ali Bongo's circle was his half-brother Frédéric, who had been the head of intelligence before the president's stroke. Another was Bongo's chief of staff, the politically savvy (and ambitious) Brice Lacruc Alianga. Alianga had previously been close to Omar Bongo, a business-friendly figure educated at Eton. After his father's stroke, Nur-eddin and Sylvia stopped contacting the ailing president and surrounded themselves with quiet and efficient technocrats dubbed the "Young Guard."

Close to the late president Omar Bongo, Brice Oligui Nguema was quickly and predictably excluded from the inner circle of the new regime: after Ali Bongo took office in 2009, he rejected several close associates of his late father, including his older sister Pascaline, the former head of the cabinet, and Nguema. A distant relative of Ali Bongo on his mother's side, Nguema was sent from the presidential palace to Morocco, where he received military training in the late 1990s, and then to Senegal as a military attaché. It took ten years before Nguema found favor with Ali Bongo again. In 2018, he replaced Ali's half-brother Frédéric as the head of intelligence for the Republican Guard. Six months later, he was appointed the head of the Republican Guard itself.

Perhaps that's why some observers claim that the coup was aimed not at Bongo himself, but at the power behind him. The coup was triggered by election fraud, which allegedly saw economist Albert Ondo Ossa, the opposition candidate, winning in the landscape. However, in his first address to the media after the coup, Ossa described the coup as a "change of power" within the palace, aimed at preserving the Bongo family's legacy and protecting their interests.

Monsieur Afrik de Gaulle and his post-colonial henchmen

Gabon was not only a key element of La Francafrique due to its control over such mineral and financial resources (at least for French politics), but also a laboratory of neocolonialism in La Francafrique. Since its formal independence in 1960, every president of Gabon has faithfully defended French interests - to the detriment of their own country.

In 1964, after an attempt by the first president Léon Mba to sideline his main political rival Jean-Hilaire Aubame, 150 soldiers (out of 600 security forces) intervened, staging a coup by dragging Mba from his bed to the national broadcasting studios to apologize to the nation for his misdeeds, and then installing Aubame as president.

Mba was essentially the director of operations for France in Libreville, ensuring the smooth functioning of the mineral-rich post-colonial state on behalf of the Élysée Palace and keeping the local population under control. The uninterrupted export activities of oil, uranium, iron, manganese, and timber ensured the continuous operation of French factories, employment for workers, and a guarantee of metropolitan stability.

Thus, the actions of the coup prompted a swift response from the Élysée Palace. de Gaulle sent his advisor on Africa, Jacques Foccart, to sort things out. By the end of the day, French troops arrived in the country, detained and killed the coup leaders, and restored Mba to power. He was then surrounded by French Republican guards. His close relationship with Foccart may not have been as internally solid and spontaneous as he imagined; Foccart was closely tied to the oil corporation Elf Aquitaine, for which Gabonese oil was the most valuable resource.

To prevent such threats in the future, Fokkar created the "Fokkart Network," a secret group of French intelligence agents, expatriates living in Gabon, and mercenaries. Their task was to detect and eliminate threats to French interests.

Together with the Republican Guard, they became a source of terror for the people of Gabon - and a model of French governance in Francophone Africa.

Albert-Bernard Bongo Ondimba was the head of Mba's cabinet. Anticipating the transfer of power, de Gaulle and Foccart checked on him in Paris. Then, Foccart visited the ailing Mba and convinced him to replace his vice president, Bongo. Foccart then ensured Mba's victory in the next elections, which were held while he was in the hospital. A few months later, Mba died, and Bongo succeeded him.

The same scheme was supposed to be repeated in the August 2023 elections. The real goal of the elections was to secure a third term for the ailing Ali Bongo, which would then lead to the coronation of his son, Nour-eddine.

Dispute with the Elysee Palace

Ali Bongo fell out with the Élysée Palace in the final years of his presidency. In June 2022, he joined the Commonwealth of Nations. He also approved the establishment of a military base for China, a decision that was certainly one of the first to be revoked by the new junta. Ali was unhappy with French investigations into corruption allegations related to real estate involving his family. French prosecutors charged at least nine half-sisters and half-brothers of the Ali Bongo family in a 15-year case. It is alleged that several members of the late President Omar Bongo's family knowingly benefited from fraudulently acquired real estate worth at least 85 million euros. They were accused of receiving misappropriated public funds, "active and passive corruption," money laundering, and "misuse of social assets."

In the early 2000s, the Gabonese government implemented a new policy aimed at adding value to its natural resources. As a result, in 2016, the "Comilog School of Mining and Metallurgy" was established. Gabon's goal was to increase the share of the mining sector in GDP from 4-6% to double digits by 2025.

If the Élysée Palace was on alert regarding Libreville's desire for greater autonomy over its own mineral resources, the dominance of French companies like Eramet ensured France's ultimate control. Even more politically significant was the fact that Paris had developed relationships with various members of the Bongo clan, including one of its distant relatives, Brice Oligui Nguema.

General Oligi Ngema, the leader of the junta, communicates freely with the French press; French channels, which were restricted even before the elections, were immediately granted permission to operate after the coup. It is worth noting that France's reaction to the coup remains mild, unlike its response to the coup in Niger. The French mining company Eramet, which suspended its operations after the coup, is back in business. The junta has appointed Marcel Abeke, the former head of Eramet, as the new Minister of Oil for the country.

The day after Ngema's coup, he reportedly met with the French ambassador in Gabon, Alexis Lamek. In the presence of Central African leaders, Ngema promised to strengthen relations with Paris. The junta appointed a new interim...