US resumes usual business with junta-led Gabon, just as Chad

The United States is resuming usual business with junta-led Gabon, 13 months since a bloodless coup brought down President Ali Bongo Ondimba and his clan dynasty that had been in power for more than half a century.

But Gabon, condemned like the other ‘coup boys’ including Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso, quickly reworked its relations with the West, including Washington, even as the African Union maintained its traditional heavy whip of cancelling out illegal changes of government.

Gabon remains suspended from the African Union activities. But Libreville is now in good books with the US, with which it wants to cement relations around democracy and human rights just as much as trade and other economic issues.

Gabon’s junta is led by a former head of the Republican Guards, an elite unit of the country's military known as Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema. Gen Nguema was swiftly sworn in as transitional president following a coup that deposed his cousin Ali Bongo Ondimba just minutes after winning re-election in a contested vote in August last year.

Ali Bongo Ondimba had ruled the country since succeeding his father, Omar Bongo in 2009 and was going to extend his 14-year rule before he was unseated. His father Omar Bongo Ondimba had ruled the country for almost 42 years until he died in 2009.

After the coup, the United States of America announced it had suspended non-humanitarian assistance to Gabon and will only resume aid to the central African nation in return for concrete restoration of a democratic process.

Last week, Washington rolled a red carpet for Gen Nguema hailing the junta leader as a champion of democracy and overturning its policy on the country, declaring intent to elevate our partnership with Libreville.

“Gabon’s commitment to a democratic transition creates unprecedented opportunities to expand and strengthen this partnership and work together to support inclusive governance and promote respect for human rights,” said State Department Spokesperson, Matthew Miller in a statement as Washington and Libreville marked sixty-four years of diplomatic relations on October 3.

The US policy on Gabon followed a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Gabon’s Transition President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema on October 1.

During the meeting, Blinken received an update on Gabon’s democratic transition “and reaffirmed the US commitment to supporting Gabon’s efforts to implement an inclusive and transparent political process culminating in free and fair elections,” the State Department Spokesperson said in the statement.

The US has rolled out a raft of measures to deepen and strengthen economic partnerships to support the development of the Gabonese economy, expand trade cooperation, and increase investment.

Miller said Washington is seeking to strengthen and elevate partnership with Gabon on matters of mutual interest, including strong partnerships to protect the environment, foster economic development, and strengthen regional security.

As part of the measures to support Gabon’s democratic transition, enhancing shared security objectives, and promoting economic development and environmental protection, the US has announced among others, the convening of the second Local Democracy Forum in Libreville in the coming months with distinguished US mayors and Gabonese leaders for an exchange about the role of local leaders in a democracy and the placement of full-time USAID country manager in Libreville in 2025.

Washington says it is supporting $2 million in new programs to protect Gabon’s African forest elephants and mitigate human-elephant conflict.

“The United States is also committed to increasing our security partnership with Gabon and expanding the Gabonese security forces’ capabilities to combat their internal security threats and contribute to regional security efforts,” the State Department statement said further. 

Unlike in Niger where Washington also severed aid after the military there engineered a coup and removed President Mohamed Bazoum in July last year, the turn of policy direction on Gabon is similar to Chad where the US showed both caution in condemning flawed polls in May this year as well as cultivating better ties with a possible role player in a troubled region.

When the US turned around, it also left the African Union stuck on the same policy or refusing to acknowledge the election results that confirmed Mahamat Idriss Itno as the President.

The junta in Gabon has scheduled post-Bongo elections for August 2025, promising it will be a free, fair, and transparent vote, but Oligui Ngema has not made it clear whether he will be a candidate or not. In Chad, junta leader Mahamat Idriss Itno won the polls which the African Union (AU) said were invalid because he competed when he shouldn’t have.

Chad was never suspended from the AU despite Itno coming to power through some kind of coup: He took power after his father died on a battlefront, days after winning a new term.

But Itno discarded all constitutional steps that were to be followed to plan a succession. Gabon is still suspended by the AU but Libreville has tightened relations with Paris and Washington. Nguema has visited both capitals and given a red carpet over the last year.

In May, the junta leader was in France seeking funds to finance the national transition development plan and steer his political ambitions. During his stay in Paris, General Oligui Nguema chaired the first edition of the Gabon-France economic forum before having a tête-à-tête with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée, the official residence of the President of the French Republic.

One of the high points of Nguema’s trip to Washington last week was a stop at the US Chamber of Commerce, the world's largest business lobby where he participated in a business roundtable and the formal signing of six Memorandums of Understanding between US companies and the Gabonese government that will increase bilateral investment and trade.