Gabon’s deposited ex-president and family arrive in Angola

The former president of Gabon, Ali Bongo, who was dropped off in a coup of 2023, left the country and is now in Angola, the authorities who have announced there.

Angola President In a statement on social media The Bongo family was released from detention and was with him in Luanda.

Bongo’s wife and son, Sylvia and Noureddin, were confronted with accusations of corruption and was imprisoned in 2023.

They have not yet publicly commented on the charges, but Mrs. Bongo’s lawyer has described her detention as random and illegal.

The release of the family comes after the Angolan president João Lourenço, who is currently leading the African Union, visited Libreville and had conversations with his Gabonese counterpart Brice Oligui Nguema – the former general who led the coup against Bongo before it was before it was it Winning a landslide in last month’s presidential elections.

Gabonese public prosecutor Eddy Minang says that the release of Mrs. Bongo and her son is purely for the time being, due to poor health and that legal proceedings against the two will continue.

In photos released by the presidency of Angola, Bongo can be greeted upon his arrival at the airport, with a woman who seems to be his wife behind him.

Ali Bongo, whose father Omar Bongo Gabon ruled for more than four decades, led the country to the coup of 2023 for 14 years.

After his overthrow, he was placed under house arrest where he was said to be, although Gabonese authorities say he was free to move the way he wanted.

His wife and son were held in prison and then released earlier this week after a request from the Bongo family lawyer, according to Mr. Minang.

Responding to their release, opposition leader Alain Claude Bilie-by-Nze said that the current President Oligui had bent Nguema “for international demands after what everyone understood as an abuse of power”.

Sylvia and Noureddin Bongo are both accused of darkening public funds, in which Mrs. Bongo is specifically confronted with allegations of counterfeit, money laundering and the falsification of documents.

Bongo has been pronounced in condemning what he described as the “violence and torture” with which his wife and son was confronted, although the authorities had denied the couple of cruel treatment.

During their 14 years in power, the Bongo family was accused of collecting wealth for themselves at the expense of the country – accusations they deny.

Although Gabon is an oil -rich nation, a third of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the UN.

In a sign of warming relations between Gabon and its continental counterparts, the African Union survived the country to its block at the end of last month after membership was suspended because of the coup.

In a statement, the chairman of the body, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, said that he hoped that “Gabon’s example will inspire comparable paths to constitutional recovery over the continent”.

The military leaders of Western African countries Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have opposed pressure to give back power to citizens.