The leader of a coup that ousted Gabon’s President Ali Bongo was sworn in as interim president and cheered by jubilant supporters on Monday in a televised ceremony designed to cast the military as liberators of an oppressed society.
Army officers led by Gen. Brice Oligui Nguema seized power on Aug. 30, minutes after an announcement that Bongo had won an election they annulled and said was not credible. It was West and Central Africa’s eighth coup in three years.
Nguema was given a standing ovation by military officers and officials as he arrived for the ceremony on Monday, and again just after he
