Gabon's capital Libreville erupted into a second day of violent protests on Thursday sparked by a disputed election, with at least three dead and hundreds arrested after the challenger rejected results that gave President Ali Bongo a narrow victory.
Riots raged in at least nine Libreville neighbourhoods on Thursday morning, two witnesses and a police source said. Interior minister Pacome Moubelet Boubeya said three people had been killed and up to 1,100 arrested across the west African country of 1.8 million, one of the continent’s top oil producers.
Mr Bongo said the electorate had given its verdict, and described the camp of challenger Jean Ping – a former close ally of the Bongo family – as "a small group whose only aim is to take power for themselves".
Mr Ping, who dismissed Wednesday’s result as fraudulent, told Reuters in an interview that two people were killed and others wounded when the presidential guard attacked his party headquarters overnight. He called for international assistance to protect the population against what he described as “a rogue state”.
Former colonial ruler France, the United States and the European Union urged calm late on Wednesday and called on authorities to release polling station results for greater transparency, while the United Nations also urged restraint. The result extends for another seven years the Bongo family's half-century grip on power in a country where oil accounts for about 60 per cent GDP.
Mr Bongo’s office accused the Ping camp of planning “co-ordinated attacks on symbols of the state”, adding that security forces had in response encircled Mr Ping’s headquarters and clashed with his supporters, resulting in one death.
On Thursday, one witness reported hearing gunfire and blasts in the Nkembo neighbourhood, near the city centre, while another saw protesters loot shops, turn over rubbish bins to block streets and smash cars in the Avea neighbourhood. “This is just a consequence of the current situation. This is because of the victory of Bongo against Jean Ping,” said witness Alex Mbadinga (32).
Libreville residents said that the internet was cut on Thursday. Social networks, including Twitter and Facebook, stopped functioning overnight.
Earlier in the week, customs officials seized satellite telephones they said had been imported illegally. French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said there was no room for violence within the political process. “I’m calling, therefore, all parties to exercise the utmost restraint to avoid additional victims.”
The office of French president Francois Hollande also called for calm, which “means a process to ensure transparency in the election results”. “Everybody knows that I won the election,” Mr Ping said, adding the electoral commission’s figures were fraudulent.
Mr Bongo won 49.80 per cent of votes in Saturday’s election against 48.23 per cent for Mr Ping, according to results read by Moubelet Boubeya on Wednesday, after the announcement was delayed by one day. “This victory by such a tight score obliges . . . each of us to respect the verdict of the ballot box,” Mr Bongo said in the text of a speech distributed to reporters late on Wednesday.
Mr Bongo was elected in 2009 upon the death of his father Omar Bongo, who ruled Gabon for 42 years. He benefited from a patronage system lubricated by oil money ahead of the vote. But economic headwinds caused by falling oil prices and crude production have led to budget cuts in one of Africa's wealthiest nations, providing fuel for opposition charges that Gabon's citizens have suffered under his rule.
Reuters