PRETORIA, August 31. /TASS/. Coups in Niger and Gabon will not be the last for Francophone African states, this trend will continue, Femi Fani-Kayode, former Nigerian Aviation Minister and a member of the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress party, said.
"With events in Gabon today it is fair to say that the hegemony of the French in Africa is almost over," Fani-Kayode wrote on his page on the social network X (formerly Twitter). "They (the Africans - TASS) have been challenged, humiliated, ridiculed, diminished, demystified and rubbished by most of their erstwhile African colonies and the hatred, contempt, opprobium and disdain that they attract from the overwhelming majority of Africans is mind-boggling and unprecedented. If they (the French - TASS) don't submit to the will of the African people, <…> bow down to the local population and beat a hasty and dignified retreat back to France with at least a measure of their dignity still intact they will be thrown out by the force of arms just as they were in Vietnam and Algeria," the politician said.
According to him, Africa is beginning to fight for "freedom from the tyrannical bondage and venemous yoke of the French and deliverance from their perverted, pervasive and corrosive ways and systemic oppression."
Speaking about the events in Gabon, he wondered whether ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) or the African Union would threaten to invade the country, as in the Niger situation.
Coups in Gabon and Niger
A group of high-ranking officers in the Gabonese armed forces announced on state television on August 30 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 resulted in President Ali Bongo Ondimba’s election as head of state. The military said that the president was under house arrest "surrounded by his family and doctors." He confirmed in a video that he was being held at the presidential residence. Later on August 30, the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions appointed General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema as transitional president.
In late July, a group of military officers from Niger's presidential guard mutinied and oustered President Mohamed Bazoum. The National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, led by the guard’s commander, Abdourahmane Tchiani, was formed to govern the country. The leaders of the ECOWAS countries imposed harsh sanctions on Niger and demanded that the rebels release Bazoum, threatening to use force.