After suffering a stroke in October 2018, Ali Bongo Ondimba saw power definitively slip from his grasp over the next four years. As his family and clan were torn apart, he watched helplessly as his political demise began to take shape. The foundations were laid for the coup d’état of 30 August 2023.
THE FALL OF THE BONGO EMPIRE
While attending an investment conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the president suffered a stroke on 24 October 2018. His wife, Sylvia Bongo Ondimba, immediately tried to take the reins. Gagging the palace, she assured a privileged few that the president was only suffering from “slight fatigue”. In reality, Ali, who had undergone an operation, was seriously ill. The first lady and her son wanted to have him transferred to England. Another faction, made up of members of the government, the family and the Ngouoni clan, opposed this plan.
Constitutional Court president Marie-Madeleine Mborantsuo campaigned for Ali to be hospitalised in Morocco. Prime Minister Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet, as well as ministers Etienne Massard (defence) and Lambert Matha (home affairs), also felt that London did not offer enough security. The meetings went on and on. Tempers flared. Ali’s friend King Mohammed VI finally intervened and won the battle. On the night of 28-29 November, a plane carrying the president flew from Riyadh to Rabat.
Nguema was offered a twofold mission: to replace ‘Fred’, who had never shown him any favours … and to keep an eye on Laccruche Alihanga. He accepted
On board were Park Sang-chul, the president’s Korean personal bodyguard, and Jean-Luc Ndong Amvame, Ali’s aide-de-camp. Sylvia left Saudi Arabia on another flight. Was this a sign of a power shift? Chief of staff Brice Laccruche Alihanga, who wanted to travel to Morocco, was prevented from leaving Libreville. In mid-December, the assistant to presidential spokesman Ike Ngouoni Oyouomi was taken in for questioning by the special services of the Republican Guard, led by Frédéric Bongo Ondimba, the president’s brother.
For many weeks, while Ali was undergoing physiotherapy, the clans were tearing each other apart. Sylvia and her son’s detractors saw Ali’s stroke as an opportunity to retake control. They failed: on 12 January 2019, Laccruche Alihanga engineered the sacking of Issoze-Ngondet and had Julien Nkoghe Bekale, one of his close friends, appointed prime minister in his place. Overnight on 14-15 January, Ali Bongo Ondimba left Morocco for Gabon. In reality, he would never regain power again.
The rise and fall of BLA
The trio of Laccruche Alihanga, Sylvia Bongo Ondimba and Noureddin Bongo Valentin was consolidating its position. Issoze-Ngondet, Massard, Ali Akbar Onanga and Christian Magnagna were dismissed. The chief of staff installed his closest relations at the top: his brothers Grégory (at Akanda town hall) and Régis Landry (at the Office of Ports and Harbours), as well as figures high up in the Association de Jeunes Emergents Volontaires (AJEV), the youth wing he had formed, such as Tony Ondo Mba and Justin Ndoundangoye, who were appointed ministers. The era of the “BLA Boys” – from the initials of Brice Laccruche Alihanga – had arrived, under the patronage of the first lady and her son.
They also set to work cleaning up the family circle. In October 2019, on the advice of former chief of staff Maixent Accrombessi, who was back working in the shadows, they prepared to sideline Frédéric Bongo Ondimba, the president’s brother and head of the Republican Guard’s special services. They persuaded Ali, who was convalescing, to call Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema back from exile in Senegal. The former aide-de-camp was offered a twofold mission: to replace ‘Fred’, who had never shown him any favours … and to keep an eye on Laccruche Alihanga. He accepted.
The chief of staff had effectively burnt his wings, and his nocturnal complicity with those in power was no longer enough to protect him. In July, August and September, he organised a tour on behalf of the ruling party, visiting Haut-Ogooué, the stronghold of the Bongos but also of his adoptive father, Louis André Laccruche Alihanga. He was welcomed like a vice-president, which made some people cringe. How far would this Franco-Gabonese, who had used public money to build up his image, go? Although he had never openly declared any political ambitions, his behaviour was raising eyebrows. Sylvia and Noureddin decided to take control of their protégé.
On 15 October, Frédéric Bongo Ondimba was asked to leave his post in the Republican Guard. Ironically, he was replaced by Nguema, and in turn was appointed defence attaché abroad in South Africa. On 7 November, Laccruche Alihanga was dismissed. He was briefly put in charge of an obscure ministry following up on the human investment strategy, but was arrested on 3 December, along with those in his close circle – his brother Grégory, Tony Ondo Mba, Justin Ndoudangoye, Ike Ngouni Aïla Oyouomi, etc. Two days later, Noureddin became Coordinator of Presidential Affairs.
Jostling for power
With the press reporting that suitcases of cash had been found in the homes of people close to the ex-chief of staff, his former sponsors tightened their grip. The time had come for the “young team”, under the leadership of Noureddin and his chief of staff, Ian Ghislain Ngoulou. Jessye Ella Ekogha, spokesperson for the palace, Mohamed Ali Saliou, deputy chief of staff to the president, Steeve Nzegho Dieko, PDG secretary general … Libreville familiarised itself with the new team in power.
Meanwhile, the Haut-Ogooué clan was again champing at the bit. While they supported the removal of Laccruche Alihanga, they had difficulty accepting the influence of Noureddin and his mother. Nguema, now head of the Republican Guard, did not get on well with Ali’s son. While Noureddin behaved like both vice-president and prime minister, summoning members of the government as he pleased, the general realised that Ali, who had never recovered from his stroke, was no longer governing, and the “young team” was forging ahead to make its mark.
In private, the family protested against this power grab, and felt that the president was being held hostage. Ali ended up losing contact with his own mother, Patience Dabany. Tension mounted, and Noureddin, who spent much of his time in London, did nothing to remedy the situation. In April 2021, Fidèle Andjoua Ondimba, Omar Bongo Ondimba’s brother, died in Libreville. Noureddin decided not to attend the funeral of this head of the family, guardian of the ancestral Teke rite, the ndjobi. He flew to Dubai while the coffin was lowered into the ground by Nguema and others.
A series of unforgivable mistakes followed, in the eyes of the Ngouoni and Haut-Ogooué clans. Noureddin moving into the ‘Moroccan Villa’ in Libreville, which Omar Bongo Ondimba had wanted to leave to his son Omar Denis Junior, aka ‘Champion’? Wrong symbol. His mistreatment of Prime Minister Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze even though he was, post September 2021, no longer Coordinator of Presidential Affairs? Abuse of power. His failure to show respect for Cyriaque Andjoua, Ali’s special adviser, son of the late Fidèle Andjoua and new Grand Master of the ndjobi rite? An affront to the clan.
A clan that would finally react, as the 2023 presidential election approached. (The Africa Report)
