General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, head of the Gabonese transitional government, continues his consultations with regional leaders and visits to neighboring countries.
After engaging with Equatorial Guinea, Congo-Brazzaville, and the Central African Republic, he visited Chad on Monday and will be in the Democratic Republic of the Congo today, Wednesday. In the meantime, he met with Central African President Faustin-Archange Touadera in Libreville on Tuesday for an “update” with the regional mediator.
The goal of this diplomatic engagement is to expedite Gabon’s reintegration into ECCAS (Economic Community of Central African States), from which it was suspended following the August 30 coup.
General Oligui Nguema will be received at the presidential palace by Felix Tshisekedi, an audience he “requested,” according to the Gabonese president’s entourage.
Preparations for this meeting were led by a Gabonese delegation, headed by the Secretary-General of the Gabonese Presidency, Guy Rossatanga-Rignault.
As during his previous visits, General Oligui Nguema aims to advocate for the transition, emphasizing that his seizure of power was, in his view, a legitimate and inevitable “liberation” rather than a coup, intended to prevent post-electoral violence.
Gabon seeks to normalize its status and wishes to swiftly reclaim its place within ECCAS, which Ali Bongo held the rotating presidency at the time of his fall. The presidency has since been assumed by Equatorial Guinean President Obiang Nguema, and the organization’s headquarters temporarily moved to Malabo.
Felix Tshisekedi supports the “ECCAS and African Union’s stance,” as explained by a close associate. Nevertheless, they acknowledge the “delicate” institutional situation within ECCAS.
On Tuesday, General Oligui Nguema detailed the latest developments in the transition to ECCAS mediator Faustin-Archange Touadera, including the appointment of parliamentarians and the announcement of a national conference scheduled for April next year.
On Monday, in N’Djamena, he defended his actions while paying tribute to the “patriarch” Idriss Déby and describing his son, Mahamat, as a “comrade-in-arms.”