LIBREVILLE, Gabon: Mutinous soldiers in Gabon announced late Wednesday that the head of the country’s elite republican guard would lead the Central African country, hours after saying they had placed the country’s newly re-elected president under house arrest.
The coup leaders said in an announcement on Gabon’s state TV that Gen. Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema had been “unanimously” designated president of a transitional committee to lead the country.
Oligui is the cousin of President Ali Bongo Ondimba, who earlier Wednesday had been declared the winner of the country’s presidential election in a victory that appeared to extend his family’s 55-year rule in the oil-rich nation.
In a video apparently from detention in his residence, Bongo called on people to “make noise” to support him. But the crowds who took to the streets of the capital instead celebrated the coup against a dynasty accused of getting rich on the country’s resource wealth while many of its citizens struggle.
“Thank you, army. Finally, we’ve been waiting a long time for this moment,” said Yollande Okomo, standing near soldiers from Gabon’s elite republican guard, one of the units that staged the takeover.
Coup leaders said there would be a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time but that people would be allowed to move about freely during the day on Thursday.
“The president of the transition insists on the need to maintain calm and serenity in our beautiful country ... At the dawn of a new era, we will guarantee the peace, stability and dignity of our beloved Gabon,” Lt. Col. Ulrich Manfoumbi said on state TV Wednesday.
Bongo, 64, has served two terms since coming to power in 2009 after the death of his father, who ruled the country for 41 years, and there has been widespread discontent with his reign. Another group of mutinous soldiers attempted a coup in 2019 but was quickly overpowered.
The former French colony is a member of OPEC, but its oil wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few — and nearly 40 percent of Gabonese aged 15 to 24 were out of work in 2020, according to the World Bank. Its oil export revenue was $6 billion in 2022, according to the US Energy Information Administration, or $2,720 per capita.
Nine members of the Bongo family, meanwhile, are under investigation in France, and some face preliminary charges of embezzlement, money laundering and other forms of corruption, according to Sherpa, a French NGO dedicated to accountability. Investigators have linked the family to more than $92 million in properties in France, including two villas in Nice, the group says.
A spokesman for the soldiers who claimed power Wednesday said that Bongo’s “unpredictable, irresponsible governance” risked leading the country into chaos. In a later statement, the coup leaders said people around the president had been arrested for “high betrayal of state institutions, massive embezzlement of public funds (and) international financial embezzlement.”
Some analysts warned that the takeover risked bringing instability and could have more to do with divisions among the ruling elite than efforts to improve the lives of ordinary Gabonese. Celebrating soldiers hoisted the head of the republican guard — who is a relative of Bongo — into the air. It’s unclear if the military intends to name him as their new leader.
The coup came about one month after mutinous soldiers in Niger seized power from the democratically elected government, and is the latest in a series of coups across West and Central Africa in recent years. The impunity those putschists enjoyed may have inspired the soldiers in Gabon, said Maja Bovcon, senior analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, a risk assessment firm.
In weekend elections, Bongo faced an opposition coalition led by Albert Ondo Ossa, an economics professor and former education minister whose surprise nomination came a week before the vote. Every election held in Gabon since the country’s return to a multiparty system in 1990 has ended in violence, and there were fears this one would as well.
The vote was criticized by international observers, but a relative calm prevailed until the early hours of Wednesday, when Bongo was declared the winner. Minutes later, gunfire was heard in the center of the capital, Libreville. Later, a dozen uniformed soldiers appeared on state television and announced that they had seized power.
Soon after, crowds poured into the streets. Shopkeeper Viviane Mbou offered the soldiers juice.
“Long live our army,” said Jordy Dikaba, a young man walking with his friends on a street lined with armored policemen.
Libreville is a stronghold of support for the opposition, but it was unclear how the coup attempt was seen in the countryside, where more people traditionally back Bongo.
The president pleaded for support in a video showing him sitting in a chair with a bookshelf behind him. He said he was detained in his residence and that his wife and son were elsewhere.
“I’m calling you to make noise, to make noise, to make noise really,” he said in English. The video was shared with The Associated Press by BTP Advisers, a communications firm that helped the president with polling for the election.
The coup leaders have said the president was under house arrest, surrounded by family and doctors.
Ossa, the opposition leader, told The AP he wasn’t ready to comment and was waiting for the situation to evolve.
“Gabon was in a midst of another electoral coup, so a coup chased another coup and the latest one has more chances of being popular, but let’s remain cautious,” said Thomas Borrel, a spokesperson for the Paris-based human rights group Survie, which advocates against France’s interventionist policies in Africa. “If a military dictatorship replaces Bongo’s dictatorship, the Gabonese population would lose again.”
The mutinous officers vowed to respect “Gabon’s commitments to the national and international community.” But the coup attempt threatened to bring the economy to a halt.
A man who answered the phone at the airport said flights were canceled Wednesday, and the private intelligence firm Ambrey said all operations at the country’s main port in Libreville had been halted, with authorities refusing to grant permission for vessels to leave. Several French companies said they were suspending operations and moving to ensure the safety of their staff.
“France condemns the military coup that is underway in Gabon and is closely monitoring developments in the country,” French government spokesperson, Olivier Veran, said Wednesday.
France has maintained close economic, diplomatic and military ties with Gabon, and has 400 soldiers stationed in the country leading a regional military training operation. The US Africa Command said it has no forces stationed in the Central African nation other than at the US Embassy.
Unlike Niger and two other West African countries run by military juntas, Gabon hasn’t been wracked by jihadi violence and had been seen as relatively stable.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the events in Gabon were being followed with “great concern.” He said it was too early to call it part of a trend or a “domino effect” in military takeovers on the continent.
Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, however, cited a “contagion of autocracy we are seeing spread across our continent,” in a statement issued by his office. It said he was conferring with other heads of state and the African Union, whose commission condemned the coup and called for a return to “democratic constitutional order.”
The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said Gabon would be discussed by the bloc’s ministers this week, adding that another military coup, if confirmed, would increase “instability in the whole region.”
A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, Wang Wenbin, called on the parties to resolve the issue peacefully.
Soldiers in Gabon say they’ve seized power and appointed the republican guard chief as head of state
https://arab.news/cx96r
Soldiers in Gabon say they’ve seized power and appointed the republican guard chief as head of state
- The coup leaders said in an announcement on Gabon’s state TV that Gen. Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema had been “unanimously” designated president of a transitional committee
- In a video apparently from detention in his residence, Bongo called on people to “make noise” to support him
Modi critic joins India’s election campaign on bail
- Top court allows Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to leave custody until June 1
- His release is expected to give a boost to India’s opposition alliance in ongoing polls
NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal joined India’s ongoing general election — boosting the opposition alliance on Saturday — a day after the Supreme Court ordered his temporary release on bail in a controversial graft case.
A fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party, Kejriwal was arrested in late March, in connection with corruption allegations related to the excise policy of the Delhi government led by him. He denies the accusations.
On Friday, the top court granted Kejriwal 21-day interim bail to campaign in the seven-phase general vote, which started on April 19. He has to surrender after the last day of voting on June 1.
“I will go around the country in the next 21 days to stop this dictatorship of Modi,” Kejriwal said at a conference in Delhi.
“After June 4, there will be no Modi government. In all states, their seats are going down and they will not get more than 220 to 230 seats.”
The results of the world’s largest election are set to be announced on June 4. The party or coalition that wins at least 272 of the 543 contested seats in the lower house of parliament will form the government.
Seeking a third straight term in office, Modi has been targeting 400 seats for the National Democratic Alliance led by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been in power since 2014.
He is challenged by an alliance of two dozen opposition parties, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, or INDIA, of which Kejriwal’s AAP is a part.
Kejriwal has accused Modi and his BJP of damaging democracy, and abusing power and the constitution.
“The opposition’s morale will get a further boost,” said Satish Kumar Singh, a political analyst in Delhi.
“The release of Kejriwal further reinforces the opposition campaign on the need to save democracy and maintain fairness in the electoral process.”
Kejriwal’s AAP is a challenger to the BJP in Delhi and Punjab, where voting will take place on May 25 and June 1 respectively.
“Kejriwal’s release is a boost to the cadres of the AAP and the opposition alliance at this crucial time when the opposition alliance is challenging the dominance of the BJP in the capital city,” Andalib Akhtar, a New Delhi-based commentator and editor of The Indian Awaz, told Arab News.
“It’s good that the court has taken a decision in favor of democracy and is giving the opposition leader — who was arrested just on the eve of the general elections — an opportunity to be on an equal footing democratically.”
Saudi eye surgeons help 1,000 Sri Lankans regain sight
- KSrelief team consists of doctors from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan
- Untreated cataracts are the most common cause of blindness in Sri Lanka
COLOMBO: A Saudi eye surgeon team is helping 1,000 people in Sri Lanka regain sight with interventions facilitated by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center.
KSrelief’s Saudi Noor Volunteer Program to Combat Blindness started in the city of Kattankudy on Sri Lanka’s eastern coast on May 5 and will run through next week.
“This is a special program to combat blindness among patients who are suffering from a cataract,” M.S.M. Thassim, director general of KSrelief’s local partner, the Association of Muslim Youth of Sailan, told Arab News.
“From the total of 1,000 patients, 500 completed surgery and 500 more (surgeries) will be performed by May 16.”
Cataracts are the most common cause of blindness in Sri Lanka. Surgery to remove them is common, but government programs often require years of waiting. At private clinics, the cheapest lens replacement procedure costs about $300 — too expensive for many patients in poorer parts of the country.
“Cataracts are becoming a problem among the lower-middle class above the age of 40,” Thassim said.
“We perform cataract surgery and also give post-surgery treatment. The patients are from all parts of the island.”
The procedures are free of cost and conducted at the Kattankudy Base Hospital by Sri Lankan medics and six Saudi and Pakistani surgeons from KSrelief’s team.
One of the Saudi volunteers is Dr. Ehab Al-Sirhy, an eye surgeon from King Saud University Medical City in Riyadh.
“The amount of surgery done is an amazing number in such a short period,” he told Arab News, praising local hospital staff for their “excellent logistics and support.”
The medical campaign is part of KSrelief’s longstanding efforts to combat blindness in developing countries. Last year, the center’s team also visited Kattankudy and helped restore the vision of hundreds of patients.
“The results are very encouraging, so now everyone brings their friends and relatives, their grandmothers, their grandfathers,” Al-Sirhy said. “The (campaign’s) reputation is excellent.”
Russia claims more advances after Ukraine ground offensive
- Russia’s defense ministry said its troops had ‘liberated’ five border villages in the Kharkiv region
- The Kharkiv region has been mostly under Ukrainian control since September 2022
UKRAINE: Russia on Saturday said it had captured six villages in Ukraine’s east after launching a surprise ground offensive that prompted mass evacuations.
The defense ministry said its troops had “liberated” five villages in the Kharkiv region near the border with Russia — Borisivka, Ogirtseve, Pletenivka, Pylna and Strilecha — “as a result of offensive actions.”
The village of Keramik in the Donetsk region was also now under Russian control, it said.
Ukrainian officials said Russian forces made small advances in the area it was pushed back from nearly two years ago, the latest in a series of gains as Ukrainian forces find themselves outgunned and outmanned.
“A total of 1,775 people have been evacuated,” Kharkiv governor Oleg Synegubov wrote on social media.
He reported Russian artillery and mortar attacks on 30 settlements over the past 24 hours.
Groups of people could be seen coming in vans and cars with as many bags as they could carry at an evacuation arrival point outside the city of Kharkiv.
Evacuees — many of them elderly — registered and received food and medical assistance in makeshift tents.
“We must disrupt Russian offensive operations and return the initiative to Ukraine,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.
Ukrainska Pravda quoted military sources saying the Russian assault had resumed on Saturday near the village of Glyboke in Kharkiv.
The report could not be independently verified.
The Kharkiv region has been mostly under Ukrainian control since September 2022.
A senior Ukrainian military source said on Friday that Russian forces had advanced one kilometer into Ukraine and were trying to “create a buffer zone” in the Kharkiv and neighboring Sumy regions to prevent attacks on Russian territory.
Ukrainian forces have multiplied attacks inside Russia and Russian-held areas of Ukraine, particularly on energy infrastructure.
Moscow-installed authorities in the Russian-occupied Lugansk region in eastern Ukraine said four people were killed by a Ukrainian strike with US-made missiles on an oil depot in Rovenky.
Governor Leonid Pasechnik said the strike “enveloped the oil depot in fire and damaged surrounding homes.”
In Russia, two people were reported killed by Ukrainian strikes in the Belgorod and Kursk regions.
Ukrainian officials also reported a total of six civilians killed in Russian shelling in the Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kherson regions over the past day.
Officials in Kyiv had warned for weeks that Moscow might try to attack its northeastern border regions, pressing its advantage as Ukraine struggles with delays in Western aid and manpower shortages.
Ukraine’s military said it had deployed more troops and Zelensky said Ukrainian forces were using artillery and drones to thwart the Russian advance.
“Reserve units have been deployed to strengthen the defense in this area of the front,” it said.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War said on Friday that Russia had made “tactically significant gains.”
But the main aim of the operation was “drawing Ukrainian manpower and material from other critical sectors of the front in eastern Ukraine,” it said.
ISW said it did not appear to be “a large-scale sweeping offensive operation to envelop, encircle and seize Kharkiv” — Ukraine’s second biggest city.
Washington announced a new $400 million military aid package for Kyiv hours after the offensive began, and said it was confident Ukraine could repel any fresh Russian campaign.
Heavy rains set off flash floods in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 200 people: UN report says
ISLAMABAD: Flash floods from seasonal rains in Baghlan province in northern Afghanistan killed at least 200 people on Friday, UN report said.
The floods also caused losses to homes and property in several districts, according to Edayatullah Hamdard, the provincial director of Natural Disaster Management in Baghlan. He said that the death toll was preliminary and that it “might rise as many people are missing.”
The flash floods also hit the capital, Kabul, said Abdullah Janan Saiq, the Taliban’s spokesman for the State Ministry for Natural Disaster Management. He said that rescue teams bringing food and other aid have been dispatched to the affected areas.
Saiq said that the rescue operation is the main focus of authorities at the moment, and that he later might be able to provide more precise figures on casualties and damage.
Emergency personnel were “searching for any possible victims under the mud and rubble, with the help of security forces from the national army and police,” Hamdard said earlier.
Dozens of tents, blankets and food were provided to those who lost their homes, he added.
Video footage seen on social media showed huge torrents of muddy water swamping roads and bodies shrouded in white and black cloth.
In one video clip, children are heard crying and a group of men are looking at floodwaters, in which bits of broken wood and debris from homes can be seen.
Since mid-April, flash flooding and other floods have left about 100 people dead in 10 of Afghanistan’s provinces, with no region entirely spared, according to authorities.
Farmland has been swamped in a country where 80 percent of the more than 40 million people depend on agriculture to survive.
Rains on Friday also caused heavy damages in northeastern Badakhshan province and central Ghor province, officials said.
Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said authorities would provide support to those impacted by the flooding across the country.
The government “expresses its deep sympathy with the families of dead and wounded, and instructs the ministry of natural disaster management, ministries of defense and interior, and provincial authorities to spare no resource in rescue efforts,” he said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.
Mohammad Akram Akbari, the provincial director of natural disaster management in Badakhshan, said the mountainous province had seen “heavy financial losses in several areas... due to floods.”
He added that casualties were feared in Tishkan district, where flooding had blocked a road and cut off access to an area where some 20,000 people lived.
Afghanistan — which had a relatively dry winter, making it more difficult for the soil to absorb rainfall — is highly vulnerable to climate change.
In April, at least 70 people died from heavy rains and flash flooding in the country. About 2,000 homes, three mosques, and four schools were damaged last month. Thousands of people require humanitarian assistance. The flooding also damaged agriculture land and 2,500 animals died in the deluges, according to Saiq.
The nation, ravaged by four decades of war, is one of the poorest in the world and, according to scientists, one of the worst prepared to face the consequences of global warming.
Afghanistan, which is responsible for only 0.06 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, ranks sixth on the list of countries most at risk from climate change, experts say.
Half of Afghanistan’s population lives under the poverty line, and 15 million people are experiencing food insecurity, according to the World Bank.
Police arrest dozens as they break up pro-Palestinian protests at several US universities
- Israel has killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry
- Nearly 2,900 people have been arrested at 57 colleges and universities
NEW YORK: Police made dozens of arrests as pro-Palestinian protest encampments were dismantled Friday at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hours after police tear-gassed demonstrators and took down a similar camp at the University of Arizona.
Philadelphia and campus police at Penn took action around daybreak to remove protesters from an encampment in place for more than two weeks. School officials said protesters were given warnings and the chance to leave without being detained. About 33 people, including faculty members and seven students, were among those arrested and charged with trespass, the school said.
Protest camps have sprung up across the US and in Europe in recent weeks as students demand their universities stop doing business with Israel or companies that support its war efforts. Organizers seek to amplify calls to end Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, which they describe as a genocide against the Palestinians. The top United Nations court has concluded there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel strongly denies.
In Cambridge, Massachusetts, police in riot gear arrived at MIT around 4 a.m., encircled the camp and gave protesters about 15 minutes to leave. Ten students who remained were arrested, the university’s president said. A crowd outside the camp began chanting pro-Palestinian slogans but was quickly dispersed.
At the University of Arizona in Tucson, campus police in riot gear fired tear gas at protesters late Thursday — the day before the school’s main commencement ceremony — before tearing down an encampment that included wood and plastic barriers. The school said police vehicles were spiked, and rocks and water bottles were thrown at officers and university staff. Two people were arrested, a university spokesperson said. Friday night’s commencement will go forward, university President Robert Robbins said.
And at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, police arrested 13 people Thursday night after they refused to leave a damaged and vandalized building. The charges ranged from misdemeanor trespass to felonies including battery on a peace officer, school spokesperson Amanda Bradford said. The building, Hadley Hall, was cleared and open Friday.
Protesters at the University of Wisconsin-Madison agreed Friday to permanently dismantle their 2-week-old encampment and not disrupt graduation ceremonies this weekend, in return for the opportunity to connect with “decision-makers” who control university investments by July 1. The university agreed to increase support for scholars and students affected by wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
Graduates from Pomona College in Southern California will have to travel 40 miles (65 km) for their commencement ceremony Sunday, as administrators seek to avoid a current encampment. The college said it will provide transportation to the venue, a historic theater in Los Angeles. In April, protesters entered an administration building and police arrested 20 people.
The protest movement began nearly three weeks ago at Columbia University in New York City. Some colleges nationwide cracked down immediately, while others tolerated the demonstrations. Some recently started calling in the police, citing concerns about disruptions to campus life and safety.
The Associated Press has recorded at least 75 instances since April 18 in which arrests were made at US campus protests. Nearly 2,900 people have been arrested at 57 colleges and universities. The figures are based on AP reporting and statements from schools and law enforcement agencies.
Arizona State University on Friday confirmed that it had placed its campus police chief on paid administrative leave pending a review of “complaints filed related to his actions” two weeks ago when an encampment was removed and police made more than 70 arrests during a pro-Palestine rally on the campus in Tempe.
The school said it was reviewing actions surrounding the establishment and removal of the encampment. Local news outlets reported earlier that ASU Police Chief Michael Thompson had been placed on leave after he had been seen out of uniform cutting and removing tents during the protest. The school told ABC15 Arizona earlier he had left a meeting to respond to the rally.
Although their encampment was cleared after two weeks, demonstrators at George Washington University vowed Friday to keep up their protest campaign.
Police arrested 33 people on Wednesday while ousting the initial encampment. The next night, a crowd of chanting demonstrators returned to the university about five blocks from the White House, setting up tents while a large Metropolitan Police Department force assembled. After multiple warnings to disperse, protests leaders ended the demonstration around midnight. One person was arrested for throwing water at a police officer.
The move at MIT came several days after police first attempted to clear the camp, only to see protesters storm past barriers and restore the encampment, which includes about a dozen tents in the heart of the campus in Cambridge.
Before removing the encampment, MIT earlier in the week started suspending dozens of students, meaning they’re barred from academic activities or commencement.
Protesters insist they will keep demanding MIT cut all ties to the Israeli military. The encampment was up for weeks and especially angered Jewish students, who held counterprotests nearby.
“This is only going to make us stronger. They can’t arrest the movement,” said Quinn Perian, an undergraduate student and organizer for MIT Jews for Ceasefire. “MIT would rather arrest and suspend some students than they would end their complicity with the genocide going in Gaza.”
MIT President Sally Kornbluth, in a letter confirming Friday’s arrests, wrote that her responsibility is “to make sure that the campus is physically safe and functioning for everyone ... and that everyone feels free to express their views.” The encampment, she wrote, “increasingly made it impossible to meet all these obligations.”
