PRETORIA, August 30. /TASS/. Gabon’s President Ali Bongo Ondimba has recorded a video message in which he confirmed that he is being held by the military inside the presidential residence. His video address was uploaded to the page of the Mimi Mefo Info news portal on the social media X (formerly Twitter).

"I am to send a message to all of friends that we have all over the world to tell them to make noise, for the people here [the military] have arrested me and my family. My son is somewhere, my wife is in another place. Right now, I am at my residence and nothing is happening. I don’t know what is going on. So, I’m calling [on] you to make noise," the president said.

A group of high-ranking Gabonese army officers announced in a live broadcast on national television that they had seized power in the country. The rebels include the commander of the Republican Guard of Gabon, General Brice Clothaire Oligui Nguema, as well as the security forces, the army and the police. The coup leaders overturned the recently announced results of the presidential election, in which incumbent President Ali Bongo Ondimba was re-elected for a third term. The military said that the president "is under house arrest, surrounded by his family and doctors."