Ali Bongo Ondimba (in cap) and his wife, Sylvia (in blue shirt), at a campaign rally on 19 August 2023.
Malkolm M./Afrikimages Agency/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Ali Bongo’s illness, the contagion effect of other recent successful coups and palace power tussles are factors responsible for Gabon’s recent coup.
After winning a third term, Ali Bongo has been ousted as president of Gabon by a military coup.
EPA-EFE/stringer
Ali Bongo is the latest in a string of leaders to be ousted in military coups since 2020.
Gabon President Ali Bongo Ondimba speaks during a trade conference in London in 2018.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images
Gabon is resource rich, but the Bongo family’s continuous rule has been bad news for the country of 2.3 million people.
Anti-government protesters in Chile defend themselves against a police water cannon, Santiago, Nov. 15, 2019.
AP Photo/Luis Hidalgo
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Campaign ads for Ali Bongo in his successful 2009 bid to succeed his father as president of Gabon. The Bongo family has lead Gabon uninterrupted for over 50 years.
Reuters/Daniel Magnowski
Gabon’s strongman president, Ali Bongo, is barely clinging to power after contested elections, a stroke and a coup attempt. The Bongo family has run this stable central African nation for 52 years.
A coup attempt failed in Gabon, following President Ali Bongo’s extended illness and absence.
EPA/Stringer
Gabon is a wealthy and stable country and this might explain why the January 7 coup attempt failed.
Gabonese President, Ali Bongo Ondimba, wants to be president for life.
Thorston Wagner/EPA
Gabon’s Ali Bongo Ondimba has watched over constitutional changes that have given him far reaching powers.
Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Joseph Kabila. Time to step aside.
Reuters/Kenny Katombe
Africa needs strong institutions. But they can only be built if there’s a change in leadership.
Duo Movaizhaleine and artist Wonda Wendy take a minute’s silence to honor the dead during a concert in Paris, February 2017.
Silber Mba
Rap has become instrumental in constructing identity and radically reshaping relations to politics in Gabon and other African states.
The charred interior of the Gabon’s parliament after it was burned in post-election protests in Libreville.
Edward McAllister/Reuters
National electoral commissions are crucial in shaping public perceptions of how well democracy is working. Poor electoral management can enable fraud and produce political alienation.
The remains of a burned car outside Gabon’s National Assembly. It was set alight during unrest after the disputed reelection of President Ali Bongo.
Reuters/Edward McAllister
Ali Bongo seems to have won Gabon’s elections. Yet his contested “victory” has radically changed the political field in this soft democracy, one of Africa’s richest and most stable.
Protesters in Paris against Gabonese President Ali Bongo with placards reading: 1967-2016, 50 years in power is enough!
AAP
Gabon has the lowest trust ratings of any election commission among the 36 African countries surveyed by Afrobarometer.