A group of military officers said they had seized power in the oil-rich Central African nation of Gabon early on Wednesday, overturning the results of a disputed election that returned the incumbent, President Ali Bongo Ondimba, for a third term in office.
Appearing on state-run TV hours after Mr. Bongo was declared the winner of last weekend’s vote, the officers annulled the result, suspended the government and closed Gabon’s borders until further notice.
Bursts of gunfire were heard in the capital, Libreville, from the vicinity of the presidential residence soon after the announcement. Hours later Mr. Bongo, one of France’s closest allies in Africa, appeared in a video posted to social media, pleading for international help.
“I don’t know what’s happening,” said Mr. Bongo, 64, speaking from a room filled with gilded furniture at his residence. “I’m calling on you to make noise, to make noise, to make noise — really.”
The coup leaders announced Gen. Brice Oligui Nguema, head of the Republican Guard, the elite unit charged with protecting Mr. Bongo, as the leader of the junta. They confirmed that Mr. Bongo and his family were being detained, along with several senior advisers, including one of his sons, Noureddin Bongo Valentin.
Footage posted to social media showed jubilant soldiers hoisting General Oligui onto their shoulders, and punching their fists in the air. The coup leader then drove through Libreville, where he was cheered by civilian supporters, some shouting “freedom!”
“Thank you, thank you,” the coup leader said at one stop, then drove off.
If it succeeds, the unexpected coup in Gabon would be the latest in an extraordinary run of military takeovers in Western and Central Africa — at least nine in the past three years, including one last month in Niger where President Mohamed Bazoum was also overthrown by the head of his presidential guard.
The coup was also a new blow to the African interests of France, until 1960 the colonial ruler of Gabon. Mr. Bongo and his family have been among France’s staunchest allies in Africa for decades, an embodiment of the lingering French influence known as Françafrique, even as its hold in other former colonies waned.
French companies dominate Gabon’s oil industry, and at least 400 French troops are based in the country, many at the Camp de Gaulle military base in Libreville.
France condemned the ongoing coup, Olivier Véran, the French government spokesman, told reporters on Wednesday morning. The French government “reaffirms its wish that the outcome of the election, once known, be respected,” he said.
Eramet, a French mining group that employs 8,000 people in Gabon, said it was suspending its operations. On social media, France’s embassy in Gabon recommended that its citizens in the country stay at home.
China, which accounts for about half of Gabon’s exports, also expressed concern. A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Beijing appealed for calm and called on “all sides” to ensure Mr. Bongo’s safety.
Russia, which has deployed Wagner mercenaries to several African countries following coups in recent years, also expressed concern. Wagner is not thought to be present in Gabon, although it has a presence at a major port in neighboring Cameroon.
Many of the recent takeovers in Africa occurred in countries that had been destabilized by insurgent violence, like Mali and Burkina Faso, or by intramilitary tensions, like Sudan. But the coup in Gabon was aimed squarely at one of Africa’s most enduring political dynasties.
The Bongos have ruled Gabon for over half a century. Mr. Bongo, 64, was about to begin his third term since becoming president in 2009. He took over from his father, Omar Bongo, who had been in power since 1967.
The voting last weekend was tense, with loud opposition claims of rigging and fears that, as in many previous elections in Gabon, it would end in violence. Many people had left the capital for the weekend, fearing trouble. After the polls closed, the government imposed a nightly curfew and restricted internet access.
Around 3 a.m. on Wednesday, the national electoral authority declared on television that Mr. Bongo had won the election with 65 percent of the vote. It said his main rival, Albert Ondo Ossa, had got 31 percent.
Moments later, gunfire was heard in the center of the city, residents said. Soon after that, the mutinous officers, calling themselves the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions, appeared on Gabon 24 and announced that they were “putting an end to the regime.”
Denouncing what he called “irresponsible and unpredictable governance” under Mr. Bongo, a spokesman for the group declared on television: “People of Gabon, we are finally on the road to happiness.”
But the statement offered few clues about the group’s level of support inside the military, or its intentions for Gabon, which is Africa’s seventh-largest oil producer and a member of OPEC.
Like the coup leader, General Oligui, many of the putschists wore the uniform of the Republican Guard. Just a few weeks ago, General Oligui received a new delivery of French armored vehicles that bolstered his unit’s reputation as the most powerful in Gabon’s military.
The attempted coup came as a surprise in Libreville, where residents woke up on Wednesday to news of potentially momentous change after a half-century under the Bongo family. Even so, there was a semblance of normality in the center of the city, where shops opened and traffic circulated. The internet was working.
Mr. Bongo’s relationship with France has wavered in recent years. He banned exports of raw wood, a move that eliminated jobs in France, and last year brought Gabon into the British Commonwealth, a pivot that Mr. Bongo heralded as “a new chapter” for his country.
Still, in June, President Emmanuel Macron of France hosted the French-educated Mr. Bongo in Paris, where they were pictured smiling together — a welcome contrast to France’s testy relations with other former colonies.
Newly installed juntas in Mali and Burkina Faso forced Paris to withdraw its diplomats and troops, and France is backing threats of military actions by West African states against military leaders in Niger.
Even as Mr. Bongo faced criticism for successive elections that were widely seen as fraudulent, and many of which ended in violence, he was lavishly praised by scientists and conservationists for his stewardship of Gabon’s sprawling, carbon-reducing forests.
Nearly 90 percent of Gabon is covered in rainforests that are filled with elephants, gorillas and chimps. Mr. Bongo, a regular at international climate conferences, introduced sweeping measures to protect those forests and to save the country’s marine areas from overfishing.
In recent years he also tried to monetize the forests, pitching carbon credits potentially worth billions of dollars to foreign businesses and governments.
Despite those riches, poverty is endemic in Gabon, where half of the population is under age 20. Nearly 40 percent of Gabonese of ages 15 to 24 are unemployed, according to the World Bank.
Elian Peltier contributed reporting from Niamey, Niger, Dionne Searcey from New York, and Aurelien Breeden from Paris.
