With hundreds detained and a disputed number of people killed in Gabon’s violent post-electoral crisis, several families in the Central African nation are on a desperate hunt for information on their missing loved ones.
On Wednesday evening, shortly after the final results of Gabon’s fraught presidential elections were released, Bruna had a brief phone conversation with her sister, Carena, that left her feeling very alarmed.
Carena was at the campaign headquarters of Jean Ping – the opposition candidate who has rejected the official election results – in the Gabonese capital of Libreville. Like many Ping supporters that fateful evening, Carena and her mother, Henriette, had gathered outside their candidate’s campaign office to hear the much-anticipated poll results.
Trouble was expected in the lead-up to the August 27 poll and trouble subsequently broke out days later when the Gabonese interior minister finally announced that President Ali Bongo had been reelected, beating Ping by a wafer-thin margin of less than 6,000 votes.
Bruna – a 25-year-old resident of the central French city of Clermont-Ferrand who asked that the family name not be disclosed due to security reasons – had been closely monitoring the events back home. When she got through to Carena in Libreville on Wednesday, she found her sister “panicking”, Bruna recalled in a phone interview with FRANCE 24. “She [Carena] told me, ‘They are firing at us, Ali [Bongo] is killing us.'”
Bruna hasn’t spoken to her mother and sister since, and nearly a week later, the family is concerned about their well-being.
Wednesday, August 31, was a dark night in Gabon’s history. Shortly after Ping declared himself the rightful winner of the 2016 presidential poll, his supporters took to the streets of Libreville, setting fire to the parliament building amid chants of “Ping hey-ho, Ali must go”.
Gabonese security forces proceeded to launch a brutal crackdown on Ping’s campaign headquarters, according to opposition supporters. Days later, photographs of the building circulating on social media sites showed an exterior pockmarked by bullet holes, while office floors inside the building were smeared with blood.
Government officials say at least three people were killed in the post-electoral violence. But in an interview with FRANCE 24 Tuesday, Ping put the death toll at “between 50 to 100”. More than 800 people have been arrested in the post-electoral crackdown, leaving many families scrambling to trace their loved ones.
On Wednesday evening, shortly after the final results of Gabon’s fraught presidential elections were released, Bruna had a brief phone conversation with her sister, Carena, that left her feeling very alarmed.
Carena was at the campaign headquarters of Jean Ping – the opposition candidate who has rejected the official election results – in the Gabonese capital of Libreville. Like many Ping supporters that fateful evening, Carena and her mother, Henriette, had gathered outside their candidate’s campaign office to hear the much-anticipated poll results.
Trouble was expected in the lead-up to the August 27 poll and trouble subsequently broke out days later when the Gabonese interior minister finally announced that President Ali Bongo had been reelected, beating Ping by a wafer-thin margin of less than 6,000 votes.
Bruna – a 25-year-old resident of the central French city of Clermont-Ferrand who asked that the family name not be disclosed due to security reasons – had been closely monitoring the events back home. When she got through to Carena in Libreville on Wednesday, she found her sister “panicking”, Bruna recalled in a phone interview with FRANCE 24. “She [Carena] told me, ‘They are firing at us, Ali [Bongo] is killing us.'”
Bruna hasn’t spoken to her mother and sister since, and nearly a week later, the family is concerned about their well-being.
Wednesday, August 31, was a dark night in Gabon’s history. Shortly after Ping declared himself the rightful winner of the 2016 presidential poll, his supporters took to the streets of Libreville, setting fire to the parliament building amid chants of “Ping hey-ho, Ali must go”.
Gabonese security forces proceeded to launch a brutal crackdown on Ping’s campaign headquarters, according to opposition supporters. Days later, photographs of the building circulating on social media sites showed an exterior pockmarked by bullet holes, while office floors inside the building were smeared with blood.
Government officials say at least three people were killed in the post-electoral violence. But in an interview with FRANCE 24 Tuesday, Ping put the death toll at “between 50 to 100”. More than 800 people have been arrested in the post-electoral crackdown, leaving many families scrambling to trace their loved ones.
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