Poci fails in Gabon ʹ State that recognised Kosovo in 2011

Attempting coups in Gabon today has failed, after a group of military commanders officially came under control, a government spokesman has announced.

“The government functions, institutions are functioning”, Guy-Bertrand Mapangou told France 24.

He told Reuters earlier that four of the five commanders who were at the state radio station were detained.

At the station, commanders declared disappointment with President Ali Bong, who is recovering from a brain attack in Morocco.

Bong's New Year's Word “has increased doubts in the president's ability to continue meeting his” obligations, said Lieutenant Colonel Kelly Ondo Obiang, who appeared as commander of the Republican Guard and head of Gabon's Patriotal Defence and Security Movement.

In a social media video clip, Ondo Obiang is seen at a radio station dressed in military and green uniforms, reading a statement broadcast about 16:30 local time. Next to him are two armed soldiers.

Ondo Obiang has said that the coup was committed against “that smugly killed their young villagers on August 31st 2016”, referring to the violence that erupted after Bongo was declared winner of the controversial election.

Bongo, 59, was hospitalised in October in Saudi Arabia following a brain attack. Since November, he's for treatment in Morocco. In a New Year's talk, he confessed his health problems, but he also indicated that he was recovering. Part of the word was inexplicable, and he did not shake his right hand, but he also seemed to have good health.

His family has ruled this oil-rich country for almost half a century. Bongo was re-elected in 2016, but she was accompanied by accusations of fraud and violent protests.

The European Union claimed it found irregularities during the vote in the province of Haut-Ogoue, which is known as the Bong raid, in which he won 95 per cent of the vote, with a 99.9 per cent turnout.