Gabon strongman Oligui Nguema meets regional mediator, opposition chief

Gabon's new strongman has met central Africa's mediator for the country and started to amnesty dissidents following a coup last week that brought the curtain down on the 55-year Bongo dynasty.

State TV said General Brice Oligui Nguema met the Central African Republic's President Faustin Archange Touadera on Tuesday in the aftermath of the August 30 putsch.

The Economic Community of Central African States [ECCAS] has appointed Touadera as the "facilitator of the political process" in Gabon.

He has been tasked with meeting "all Gabonese actors and partners of the country" with the goal of providing "a rapid return to constitutional order."

Gabon, the oil-rich state, joins Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Niger among African countries that have undergone coups in the last three years — a trend that has sounded alarm bells in the continent and beyond.

The broadcast gave no details of the talks, which came a day after ECCAS member Equatorial Guinea said Gabon had been suspended from the 11-nation group.

ECCAS also ordered the immediate transfer of its headquarters from Gabon's Libreville to the Equatorial Guinea capital of Malabo, the country's vice president, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, said on X, previously known as Twitter.

Touadera is expected to meet ousted president Ali Bongo Ondimba later on Tuesday, Touadera's spokesperson Albert Yaloke Mokpeme said in the CAR capital of Bangui.

Elections and amnesties

Oligui, head of the elite Republican Guard, was sworn in on Monday as interim president.

In a speech, he promised to hold "free, transparent and credible elections" to restore civilian rule, but he did not give a timeframe.

He also vowed to amnesty "prisoners of opinion," a move that was followed on Tuesday by the release of several individuals, said rights lawyer Anges Kevin Nzigou.

Among those freed, he said, was one of his clients, Jean Remy Yama, a 59-year-old teacher and trade unionist, who had been held since June 2022 on charges of embezzling public funds — an accusation that the opposition said was bogus.

"It's a good signal to start by addressing cases of injustice," Nzigou said, adding he hoped that "more will follow."

Oligui also met late on Monday with Albert Ondo Ossa, the main opposition candidate in elections that precipitated the coup, Ondo Ossa's spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The meeting marks a further step by Oligui to forge contacts with key figures after Wednesday's dramatic events.

Ondo Ossa, 69, was the chief rival to Bongo in fiercely disputed presidential elections on August 26.

Monday night's meeting took place at Ondo Ossa's home, said Guy-Pamphile Mba, in charge of the former candidate's communications.

On Sunday, Oligui gave a warm reception to leaders of Alternance 2023, the coalition that named Ondo Ossa as its champion less than a week before the poll.

In the immediate aftermath of the coup, Ondo Ossa urged Oligui to step aside, arguing that he had won the elections, but the outcome had now been "cancelled" by the military takeover.

He also suggested that family ties connected Oligui and Bongo, and that the event was less a coup than a "palace revolution" that was now perpetuating what he called the "Bongo system."

Weak financial prospects

Credit ratings agency Fitch said it has placed Gabon on "rating watch negative" [RWN], citing high political uncertainty in the Central African nation following a military coup last month.

Fitch placed Gabon's 'B-' Long-Term Foreign-Currency and Local-Currency Issuer Default Ratings on RWN in an unscheduled review.

It said the coup may have weakened Gabon's financial prospects by hurting the operational capacity of institutions responsible for its treasury and debt management, and also affecting the country's access to regional debt markets.

"We assume Gabon will rely more on the regional market for financing at higher interest costs as the coup heightens the market's nervousness," Fitch said.

The credit ratings agency added that a resumption of the country's IMF programme was also now unlikely.