GABON’s former leader Ali Bongo Ondimba, who was detained after being ousted in a 2023 coup, has been released and has arrived in Luanda with his family, Angola’s presidency said Friday.
Bongo, whose family ruled Gabon for 55 years, had been under house arrest in the capital Libreville since being overthrown in August 2023.
His wife and son had also been in detention, accused of embezzling public funds.
A statement on the Angolan presidency’s Facebook page announcing the arrival of the Bongo family in Luanda was accompanied by photographs showing the former leader being welcomed at an airport.
The “Bongo family has been released and has just arrived in Luanda,” it said.
The release of the family followed talks between Angola President Joao Lourenco and Gabon’s new leader, Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, the statement said, without giving details.
Oligui, a former junta leader, seized power in the oil-rich country in the August 2023 coup that ended the 55-year rule of the Bongo dynasty.
The general was sworn in earlier this month after winning 94.85 percent in an April 12 vote in which international observers signalled no major irregularities.
Oligui’s main rival, Alain-Claude Bilie By Nze, who was the last prime minister under Bongo, said the family’s release demonstrated that their detention “did not respect the framework of law and justice”.
“President Oligui Nguema did not show clemency: he had to bow to international demands after what everyone understood to be an abuse of power,” he said.
