By Chidi Odinkalu
Citizens of Gabon, the small Central African country and former bastion of French colonialism in the Congo Basin, broke out in spontaneous celebration at the news of the ouster of President Ali Bongo Ondimba, on August 30, 2023. This is the 22nd coup attempt in Africa since 2013, and the 11th successful coup across eight countries since Zimbabwe’s soldiers sacked President Robert Mugabe in 2017.
This is also the third coup attempt in Gabon’s history and the first to succeed. The coup began on the fourth day of a nation-wide curfew accompanied by a shutdown of the airspace, borders, and the internet and shortly after Gabon’s electoral commission announced under cover of darkness that President Bongo had won another seven-year term in elections in which he allowed no observers.
