Gabon’s coup leader, seeking an end to international sanctions, says he visited the Central African Republic on Thursday to explain to its president why he seized power from Gabon’s president on August 30.
Gen. Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, the coup leader, said he told CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera that the military takeover was vital to free Gabon from a long, iron-fisted rule that failed to improve the living conditions of its civilians.
Nguema also said that the coup was intended to avoid bloodshed because, he said, Gabon’s opposition was preparing to take up arms to defend their victory that they say President Ali Bongo Ondimba stole in the August 26 election.
Touadera is the president of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, or CEMAC, a regional economic bloc with Cameroon, Chad, CAR, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Congo as members.
He also was appointed by the 11-member Economic Community of Central African States, or ECCAS, to mediate Gabon’s transition to constitutional order. ECCAS includes all the CEMAC nations as well as Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe.
Source : VOA