Gabon’s President Ali Bongo has appeared in a video calling for his “friends” to “make noise” after military officers in the oil-rich Central African state staged a coup.

“I’m sending a message to all friends that we have all over the world to tell them to make noise for (…) the people here who arrested me and my family,” he said, looking worried, in the clip posted on social media. AFP was not able to determine where or when the video was captured.

Hours earlier, a group of Gabonese military officers appeared on television announcing they were “putting an end to the current regime” and cancelling Ondimba’s election.

During the announcement, AFP journalists heard gunfire ring out in the Gabonese capital, Libreville.

While announcing the cancellation of the vote results, one of the officers said “all the institutions of the republic” had been dissolved.

The address was read by an officer flanked by a group of a dozen army colonels, members of the elite Republican Guard, regular soldiers and others.

It came moments after the national election authority said Bongo had won a third term in Saturday’s election with 64.27 percent of the vote.

AFP