Ousted Gabon President Ali Bongo is free to leave the country and travel abroad, this is according to the leader of the coup that toppled him.
“He has freedom of movement… and can travel abroad if he wishes,” general Brice Oligui Nguema said in a statement read on state television on Wednesday, September 6.
Bongo, in power for 14 years, had been under house arrest since the military coup of August 30.
The bloodless coup was carried out less than an hour after Bongo’s party proclaimed his re-election in a vote described as fraudulent by the coup plotters.
Ali Bongo health issues
“Given his state of health, the former President of the Republic Ali Bongo Ondimba has freedom of movement. He can travel abroad if he wishes to carry out his medical checks,” Colonel Ulrich Manfoumbi Manfoumbi said, reading a press release signed by Oligui – the now transitional president.
Bongo suffered a serious stroke in October 2018 which left him physically impaired, with particular difficulty moving his right leg and arm.
