In Gabon, the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions (CTRI) announced that Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, Chief Commander of the Republican Guard, will lead the organisation. A general trained in Morocco, he hails from Haut-Ogooué, the birthplace of the Bongo family.
Also present in the CTRI ranks on 30 August was Aimé-Vivian Oyini, son of the late André Oyini and now Chief of Staff of the Republican Guard. Both men have known each other well for a long time. Trained at the Royal Military Academy in Meknes, Morocco, and enjoying the sponsorship of the influential general and his family ties with the head of state, Nguema became one of Omar Bongo Ondimba’s Aides-De-Camp.
“He was one of the ‘little ones’ of the president, often seen in the hallways,” recalls Anne-Marie Dworaczek-Bendome, a former associate of OBO. Nguema stayed by the president’s side until his death in 2009 in Barcelona. However, falling out of favour with parts of the deceased’s family, especially with future president Ali Bongo Ondimba (ABO), he was removed from Libreville and sent on foreign duty.
Exile, Then Return
Serving as Gabon’s military attaché in Morocco and then Senegal, he spent 10 years in exile. He only returned in 2019, mainly under the influence of Brice Laccruche Alihanga, whom he had known since childhood and who was then ABO’s Chief of Staff. He came back a year after the president’s stroke and shortly after an unsuccessful coup attempt that reportedly involved the Republican Guard. He took over as head of the powerful Directorate-General of Special Services (DGSS), the intelligence unit of the Republican Guard.
Nguema replaced Frédéric Bongo, the president’s half-brother, who had himself fallen from grace within the family. “Fred”, symbolically, was then appointed military attaché of Gabon in South Africa. At that time, Nguema openly declared his unwavering support for the head of state, leading to his appointment as head of the Republican Guard in April 2020.
A ‘Palace Coup’
As Chief Commander, he even changed the slogan of the regiment to swear loyalty to the president, rather than the country. He then tightened his grip over the Republican Guard, the linchpin of Ali Bongo Ondimba’s power.
Highly valued by his troops and responsible for a significant increase in personnel, he also ensured his regiment became one of the best-equipped in the country. In 2023, in anticipation of the elections, he added four AML-90 light armoured vehicles and recruited 679 new agents to his ranks.
The CTRI now claims to be provisionally managing the country. Ali Bongo Ondimba is under house arrest but faces no charges. Several of his close associates, however, have been arrested and are under investigation for “treason against state institutions, organised international financial malpractice,” and even “drug trafficking and forgery.”
All are close to Noureddin Bongo-Valentin and First Lady Sylvia Bongo-Ondimba. At the present time, she is no longer by Ali Bongo Ondimba’s side, with whom there has been no communication. “It’s primarily a palace coup, one branch of the family against another,” notes a former insider from the Palais du bord de mer. (The Africa Report)
