2023 — Gabon's Coup

On August 30, 2023, hours after Ali Bongo was declared winner of a disputed election, Gabonese soldiers seized power on live television, ending the Bongo family's fifty-six-year rule. General Brice Oligui Nguema, head of the presidential guard and Bongo's own cousin, annulled the vote and dissolved every state institution while crowds cheered in Libreville.

It was the eighth coup in West and Central Africa in three years, part of a wave unsettling the region. In Gabon, the cheering in the streets spoke to exhaustion with a family dynasty — and to the uncertainty that follows when soldiers, not voters, decide.