The military has overthrown the Gabonese government in a coup, following an election held on Saturday.
The coup leaders said in a television address that they were annulling the results of the election.
According to official results incumbent Ali Bongo had won the election with nearly two-thirds of the vote, although the opposition said the vote had been fraudulent.
Bongo became President in 2009, succeeding his father who had governed the country since 1967.
A group of army officers appeared on television early on Wednesday morning, saying that they were cancelling the results of the election. They were also closing the country’s borders and according to the BBC said they were ‘dissolving’ all Gabon’s institutions.
The group said they were from a group called the Committee of Transition and the Restoration of Institutions and represented the country’s military and security forces.
Gabon is, by the standards of the region, relatively peaceful and prosperous, and has the sixth highest GDP per capita in Africa, although inequality is high.
It relies heavily on oil with the fossil fuel accounting for nearly half of the country’s GDP.
The coup in Gabon is the latest in a series of seizures of power by military juntas across the continent, particularly in West Africa.