NEW YORK, August 30. /TASS/. Developments in Gabon have not affected the activities of about 400 French military instructors stationed in the country, the Associated Press reported, citing the French military.

"France has 400 soldiers in Gabon leading a regional military training operation. They've not changed their normal operations today," the report reads.

According to the French newspaper Le Monde, the French base in Gabon is one of the smallest on the continent. The French leadership stands for reducing the number of the country’s troops stationed in Gabon, Senegal and the Ivory Coast, and, according to Le Monde, has even expressed a wish to shut down the Gabon base.

Earlier, a group of high-ranking officers in the Gabonese armed forces announced on state television that they had taken power in the country. The rebels consist of officers serving in the Central African nation’s security forces, armed forces and police, as well as members of the national guard and presidential guard. The rebels canceled the results of the August 26 presidential vote that President Ali Bongo Ondimba had won. He was taken under house arrest.