UPDATE: BONGO CRITIC NAMED INTERIM PM IN POST-COUP GABON
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Following the military takeover of Gabon on August 30, Raymond Ndong Sima was named interim prime minister on Thursday. Sima was a well-known opponent of ousted president Ali Bongo Ondimba.
The 68-year-old economist Ndong Sima, who held the position of prime minister under Bongo from 2012 to 2014, later turned against Bongo and ran against him in the elections of 2016 and 2023.
General Brice Oligui Nguema, the new strongman who was sworn in as interim president on Monday after the coup, formalised his appointment via a decree.
Although he did not specify a timeline, Oligui promised to arrange “free, transparent, and credible elections” in order to restore civilian government.
He added that he will soon unveil a transitional administration that will include representatives from both sides of the political aisle.
After the passing of his father, Omar, a kleptocrat who ruled the central African state with an iron fist for more than 40 years, Bongo, 64, assumed power.
He was narrowly re-elected in 2016, according to the hotly contested official results, but two years later he had a stroke that made him less able to hold onto power.
Four days after being declared the winner of a presidential election, Bongo, his wife, and son were arrested on August 30 by soldiers under the command of the elite Republic Guard commander Oligui.
Gabon’s post-coup developments are closely watched throughout central Africa and elsewhere.
The oil-rich nation is one of several African nations that have had coups in the past three years, joining Mali, Guinea, Sudan, Burkina Faso, and Niger.
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