News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

3 dead in Gabon election protests

Posted: 01 Sep 2016 11:15 PM PDT

Gabon's newly re-elected president is asserting his authority.

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Libreville, Gabon - Gabon's newly re-elected president sought to assert authority on Thursday.

The presidential guard attacked the opposition candidate's party headquarters amid fiery protests that have seen three killed, hundreds detained and the internet blocked.

The opposition quickly alleged election fraud after results announced on Wednesday showed that a family dynasty stretching back to the 1960s would remain in power in this oil-rich Central African country.

President Ali Bongo Ondimba beat opposition candidate Jean Ping by a narrow margin in Saturday's vote, 49.8 percent to 48.2 percent, according to the electoral commission's provisional results.

"I know who has won and who has lost," Bongo said Thursday to local media. "Who has won? One million, eight hundred thousand Gabonese with whom we will progress together. Who has lost? A small group which had the objective of taking power to use Gabon instead of serving it."

Ping's supporters have taken to the streets in protest, burning cars and buildings, vandalising and looting. They burned cars in front of the National Assembly on Wednesday night, sending thick smoke over the city, after police fired tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators.

Security forces detained 800 people in the capital, Libreville, and 400 people in other areas of the country, according to Interior Minister Pacome Moubelet Boubeya.

The unrest killed at least three people, Boubeya said, without giving details.

The president said he was sad for the deaths of citizens, and he thanked security forces, who he said did all they could to avoid using live bullets.

In a statement, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the response by security forces "disproportionate" and he called on the government to "immediately restore communications, especially the Internet."

Around 1am on Thursday, soldiers in green berets, who are known to be part of the presidential guard, shot live rounds during an attack on Ping's opposition headquarters, injuring at least 20, according to Paul Marie Gondjout, an opposition official who was there. One person was killed, said Ping's campaign director, Rene Ndemezo'o Obiang.

Security forces later surrounded the building, and remained there on Thursday night, detaining more than a dozen members of the National Union opposition party inside, said party spokeswoman Sandrine Akere. Ping was not in the building.

Government spokesman Alain Claude Bilie-By-Nze confirmed the presidential guard operation on the opposition headquarters.

"It was a part of securing the headquarters of Jean Ping, because all of the operations for the capital had been planned there," said Bilie-By-Nze, referring to the protests. He said at least 16 had been injured and were being treated.

The spokesman called on people contesting the vote to do so through proper legal channels.

Looting and clashes also followed Bongo's previous election win in 2009, when he came to power after the death of his father, longtime ruler Omar Bongo.

European Union observers have criticised what they called a "lack of transparency" in the vote, and both the EU and the United States have called for electoral officials to publish results from all polling stations.

AP

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Zim bans demonstrations in Harare

Posted: 01 Sep 2016 10:53 AM PDT

All all demonstrations in Harare have been banned for the next two weeks by the Zimbabwean government.

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Harare - Zimbabwe has banned all demonstrations in the capital Harare for the next two weeks because they are likely to cause public disorder, according to a government notice issued on Thursday.

President Robert Mugabe's opponents have become emboldened by rising public anger over an economic meltdown, cash shortages and high unemployment. Violence erupted last Friday when police fired teargas at opposition leaders and hundreds of demonstrators.

Reuters

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Gabon presidency accuses poll rival of ‘coordinated attacks’

Posted: 01 Sep 2016 08:32 AM PDT

Gabon's President Ali Bongo accused the camp of his rival in a disputed election, Jean Ping, of planning ‘coordinated attacks on symbols of the state’.

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Libreville - The office of Gabon's President Ali Bongo on Thursday accused the camp of his rival in a disputed election, Jean Ping, of planning “coordinated attacks on symbols of the state”, after the capital Libreville erupted into rioting.

“These were not protests but coordinated acts intended to incite fear amongst the citizens who voted the 'wrong' way,” the statement said, saying that security forces had in response encircled Ping's headquarters and clashed with his supporters, resulting in one death.

Reuters

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Riots in Libreville over disputed election

Posted: 01 Sep 2016 03:33 AM PDT

Riots erupted in at least nine suburbs of Gabon's capital in protest against a disputed election win by President Ali Bongo, two witnesses and a police source said.

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Libreville - Riots erupted in at least nine suburbs of Gabon's capital on Thursday in protest against a disputed election win by President Ali Bongo, two witnesses and a police source said.

Supporters of Bongo's main rival for the presidency suspect that Saturday's election, which brought Bongo back to power on a narrow margin, was rigged.

Opposition leader Jean Ping said on Thursday that two people were killed and many wounded when the presidential guard and police attacked his party's headquarters overnight after an election narrowly won by President Bongo.

Ping called for international assistance to protect the population of the oil-producing state and said Saturday's election was stolen by Bongo, who was declared the winner on Wednesday.

The result gives the president a further seven years in power in the country of 1.8 million people. Bongo took power in 2009 on the death of his father, who had ruled for 42 years.

"Everybody knows that I won the election," Ping told Reuters, adding that the electoral commission's figures were based on false documents.

"The (Bongo) family are repeating the same scenario for almost half a century. The opposition can win the elections but they have never had access to power... We need assistance from the rest of the world to protect the population of Gabon from a clan of mercenaries, a rogue state," he said.

Opposition supporters greeted the election result with anger. Demonstrators in the capital Libreville clashed with police and set part of the parliament building on fire. It burned for hours before being extinguished, witnesses said.

On Thursday there were fresh clashes in the impoverished Nkembo neighbourhood near the centre of the capital. Gunfire and explosions could be heard, witnesses said. A government spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called for an immediate end to violence. France is Gabon's former colonial power and retains strong economic and cultural links.

"Within the framework of a political process, there's no room for violence," Ayrault said in a statement. "I'm calling, therefore, all parties to exercise the utmost restraint to avoid additional victims."

France, the United States and the European Union urged calm and called on authorities to release the results of individual polling stations for greater transparency, while the United Nations also urged restraint.

Bongo won 49.80 percent of votes against 48.23 percent for Ping, on a turnout of 59.46 percent, according to results given region by region by Interior Minister Pacome Moubelet Boubeya.

"This victory by such a tight score obliges ... each of us to respect the verdict of the ballot box and our institutions," Bongo said in the text of a speech distributed to reporters.

Ping, a political insider who has served as foreign minister and African Union Commission chairman, was a close ally of the late president and fathered two children with his daughter.

His avenue for contesting the result appeared uncertain. Elections in Africa are frequently disputed but it is unusual for results to be overturned.

Ping said he was not calling on his supporters to protest because they were already under so much pressure from authorities. He said he feared arms would be planted in his party headquarters and he could be arrested as a result.

Voting was peaceful but the election followed a bitter campaign in which both sides traded accusations of fraud. Opposition suspicions were heightened when the release of results was delayed earlier in the week.

An EU observer mission criticised a "lack of transparency" among institutions running the election and said Bongo had benefited from preferential access to money and the media.

France's Foreign Ministry also said the way in which the results were announced was a source of concern.

"We think it is necessary to publish the results of all the polling stations. The credibility of the election as well as Gabon's international reputation are at stake," it said.

Reuters

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