"A period of one year has been given for the political process to be reactivated for a rapid return to constitutional order", the vice-president of Equatorial Guinea announced on Monday night, on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
Teodoro Nguema Obiang also confirmed that the country will assume the Presidency and headquarters of CEEAC in the capital, Malabo, considering that the President of Gabon, Ali Bongo, who was the organization's acting president since February, was deposed by the perpetrators of the coup of State.
The decision came from an extraordinary meeting of the ECCAS, held on Monday in Equatorial Guinea.
On the other hand, the CEEAC designated the president of the Central African Republic as facilitator of the negotiations, and must travel "immediately to Libreville for contacts, not only with the established power, but also with the opposition, civil society and all parties involved" in the based on guidelines previously defined at the meeting, said the Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe.
Patrice Trovoada said that the Presidents of Angola, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, a representative of Chad and the special representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Central Africa participated in the extraordinary meeting of the CEEAC.
The CEEAC includes Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
General Brice Oligui Nguema, who last week overthrew Ali Bongo, took office on Monday as president of Gabon during a transition period, at the end of which he promised elections without specifying a date.
On August 30th, the coup military announced the "end of the regime" of Ali Bongo Ondimba, who governed Gabon for 14 years, less than an hour after announcing his re-election in the August 26th elections, claiming that these had been fraudulent.
The following day, the coup plotters proclaimed General Oligui Nguema president of a Transition and Restoration of Institutions Committee (CTRI).
The coup plotters placed Ali Bongo under house arrest for "high treason against State institutions" and "massive embezzlement of public funds", among other crimes, and announced the appointment of General Brice Oligui Nguema, commander of the Republican Guard, as the new "president of transition".
The family of Ali Bongo Ondimba - who became President after the death of his father, Omar Bongo, in 2009 - has been in power since 1967.
The coup d'état in Gabon, one of sub-Saharan Africa's oil powers, is the second to occur in Africa in just over a month, after the army took power in Niger on July 26.
Gabon thus joined the list of countries that have seen successful coups d'état in the last three years, which, in addition to Niger, includes Mali (August 2020 and May 2021), Guinea-Conakry (September 2021), Sudan (October 2021) and Burkina Faso (January and September 2022).
