Gabonese junta frees Bongo on 'health grounds'
Thursday September 07 2023
A video grab taken from a video shows deposed president of Gabon, Ali Bongo Ondimba, at his residence in Libreville on September 6, 2023. PHOTO | AFP
A week after his ouster, former Gabonese President Ali Bongo can now move about freely.
Gen Brice Oligui Nguema, the Chairman of the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions, also the transitional President, said on Wednesday night that Bongo was a free man.
In a statement broadcast on Gabonese state television channel Gabon 24, Col Ulrich Manfoumbi, the spokesman for the ruling junta, said that “given his state of health, former president Ali Bongo Ondimba is free to move about. He may, if he wishes, travel abroad to undergo medical check-ups”.
After losing power in a coup on August 30, Ali Bongo was kept under house arrest.
The former head of state had suffered a stroke in 2018 while on an official visit to Saudi Arabia. The illness kept him out of office for almost 10 months. During this time, he was treated in Morocco.
Read: VP says Gabon president suffered a stroke
Since his illness, the former president has suffered some after-effects in the way he speaks and walks, but he himself says that he was “feeling better.”
A few hours after taking power on August 30, General Brice Oligui Nguema cited Bongo’s illness as one of the reasons why the army took power.
Brice Oligui stated that Ali Bongo had been “retired now.”