Gabon’s opposition leader said security forces killed two people and hurt 19 in a raid against his headquarters Thursday.
Advertisement
The opposition has called for a recount, something the ruling party has rejected.
Government spokesman Alain Claude Bilie-By-Nze confirmed the presidential guard operation on the opposition headquarters.
Voicing deep concerns about the unfolding electoral crisis in Gabon, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called for restraint and the upholding of worldwide standards of human rights there -and expressed UN support for a transparent verification of its recent presidential election results.
But Mr Ping said the election was fraudulent.
Looting and clashes also followed Bongo’s previous election win in 2009, when he came to power after the death of his father, longtime ruler Omar Bongo.
On Thursday, military and police were out in the streets taking down barriers set up during the riots, which seem to have subsided.
“Witnesses report the sound of gunfire in Gabon’s capital”.
“This is just a effect of the current situation”.
Internet communications remained cut and the capital scarred by the night of rioting. By mid-morning Thursday, security forces had sealed off the city centre, which was calm and otherwise deserted, and were making arrests around the opposition headquarters, AFP journalists said. Earlier in the week, customs officials seized satellite telephones they said had been imported illegally.
Interviewed on Friday on France 2 television, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said: “We are Africa’s partners but we do not want in any case to intervene in countries’ internal affairs”. “I’m calling, therefore, all parties to exercise the utmost restraint to avoid additional victims”.
Official results released on Wednesday by Interior Minister Pacome Moubelet Boubeya reveal that President Bongo had been re-elected with 49.80 percent of the vote, narrowly beating main opposition leader Jean Ping who garnered 48.23 percent of the vote.
“The members of the Security Council called upon all candidates, their supporters, political parties and other political actors to remain calm, refrain from violence or other provocations and resolve any electoral disputes through established constitutional and legal mechanisms”, Gerard Jacobus van Bohemen, New Zealand’s ambassador to United Nations, who holds the rotating council presidency this month, said on Thursday.
The West African nation is one of the leading oil-producers on the continent and has a population of just 1.5 million people.
Advertisement
Ping, a former close ally of the president who fathered two children with his daughter, called on Bongo to step down on Wednesday. Beginning on July 30, the European Union had 22 election observers in Gabon’s nine provinces to monitor the election.
