Following being inaugurated as interim president of Gabon on Monday, the coup leader promised to restore civilian rule through "free, transparent, and credible elections" following a transition period and to release political prisoners.
General Brice Oligui Nguema said in a speech after taking the oath of office that the elections would be the first step toward "handing power back to the civilians," though he did not provide a date.
Oligui stated that he was seeking the cooperation of all of Gabon's "core groups" in the creation of a new constitution that "will be adopted by referendum."
He also stated that he would direct "the future government... to consider methods of amnesty to prisoners of conscience" and "facilitating the return of all exiles" from abroad.
Oligui, the 48-year-old leader of the elite Republican Guard, launched a revolution that ended President Ali Bongo Ondimba's and his father Omar's 55-year dynastic rule.
Bongo's removal happened just moments after he was declared the winner of the presidential elections last month, a result that the opposition called fraudulent.
Oligui was "surprised" by foreign condemnation of the coup.
The military was spurred by a desire to avert bloodshed following "an electoral process that was loaded," he claimed.
“We are greatly surprised to hear certain international organisations condemn the act taken by soldiers who were simply upholding their oath to the flag — to save their country at the risk of their lives,” he said.
In the last three years, five other African countries — Mali, Guinea, Sudan, Burkina Faso, and Niger — have had coups, albeit their circumstances differ from Gabon's.
Military takeovers occurred in three Sahel countries, for example, after elected presidents failed to quell a brutal jihadist insurgency.
