Gabon’s New Military Head Of State Was Close To Ali Bongo
In Gabon, the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions (CTRI) announced that Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, Chief Commander of the
Republican Guard, will lead the organization. A general trained in Morocco, he hails from Haut-Ogooué, the birthplace of the Bongo family.
This Wednesday morning, his name was first chanted by members of the Republican Guard, over whom he has command, inside the presidential palace. Shortly after, confirmation came: Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema is now the president of the CTRI, which declared it was seizing power in Libreville on 30 August, as announced on Gabon 24, the national television.
Minutes after Gabon’s electoral commission announced on Wednesday that President Ali Bongo Ondimba had won a third term in office, senior military officers announced a coup and annulled the election results.
According to local media reports, Brice Clothaire Oligui Nguema, the commander-in-chief of the Gabonese Republican Guard – the country’s most powerful security unit – and a cousin to Bongo, is the ringleader of the attempted coup.
The son of a military officer, he trained at the Royal Military Academy of Meknes, in Morocco.
Nguema then served as Bongo’s “aides-de-camp” to a commander in former President Omar Bongo’s Republican Guard, until the former Gabonese leader’s death in 2009.
When Omar Bongo’s son Ali Bongo rose to power in October 2009, Nguema was sent to Morocco and Senegal for diplomatic missions. A decade later, he took over as the head of the guard.
The guard, whose military officers are recognisable by their green berets, is responsible for presidential security. As its head, Nguema tried to fortify Gabon’s internal security systems with reforms that were seen as elongating Bongo’s stay in power.
According to local media reports, Nguema also composed a song that included the line: “I would defend my president with honour and loyalty”.
Besides military and diplomatic duties, Nguema was seen as entrepreneurial and also believed to be a millionaire in Gabonese circles.
According to a 2020 investigation by The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) on the Bongo family’s assets in the United States, Nguema invested in real estate, paying in cash.