Is there military take over in Gabon?

Military officers in Gabon say they have taken power and put the president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, under house arrest, as the country becomes the latest in Africa to suffer an attempted coup, only weeks after mutinous troops seized power in Niger.

LIBREVILLE, Aug 30 (Reuters) – Military officers in oil-producing Gabon said they had seized power on Wednesday and had put President Ali Bongo under house arrest, stepping in minutes after the Central African state’s election body announced he had won a third term.

The officers who said they represented the armed forces declared on television that the election results were cancelled, borders were closed and state institutions were dissolved, after a tense vote without international observers that was set to extend the Bongo family’s more than half century in power.

Hundreds of people celebrated the military’s intervention, while France, Gabon’s former colonial ruler which has troops stationed in the African nation, condemned the coup.

“I am marching today because I am joyful. After almost 60 years, the Bongos are out of power,” said Jules Lebigui, a jobless 27-year-old who joined crowds on Libreville’s streets.

In another statement, the officers said they had detained Bongo, who took over in 2009 from his father Omar, who had ruled since 1967. They said they had arrested the president’s son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, and others for corruption and treason.

The Gabon officers, calling themselves The Committee of Transition and the Restoration of Institutions, said the country faced “a severe institutional, political, economic, and social crisis”. They said the Aug. 26 vote was not credible.

It was not clear who was leading the coup, but television images showed a man in fatigues and a green beret held aloft by soldiers shouting “Oligui president”, a possible reference to Brice Oligui Nguema, the head of Gabon’s Republican Guard.

Despite the brief sound of gunfire in the capital shortly after the officers made their first announcement, the streets of Libreville were calm until celebrations erupted. Police officers fanned out to guard major city intersections.