LIBREVILLE, (Reuters) – Security forces clashed with opposition supporters in Gabon’s capital yesterday after Ali Ben Bongo, son of long-time ruler Omar Bongo, was declared the winner of a disputed presidential election.
Protesters targeted facilities owned by French oil giant Total and U.S. oil field services firm Schlumberger in the Port Gentil oil hub, and ex-colonial power France’s consulate there, the French Foreign Ministry said.
The government later imposed a curfew on the city, and said extra security measures would be implemented across the country, without giving details of what those measures would be, nor when the Port Gentil curfew would be lifted.
A Reuters witness touring the capital Libreville after anti-riot police had dispersed protesters said its streets were largely deserted, in what could prove an early sign that former defence minister Ben Bongo was asserting his authority.
“I want to be president of all the Gabonese,” Ben Bongo, 50, declared on his family television network TeleAfrica after the interior minister declared him victor of Sunday’s poll with 47.1 percent of the vote.
French Secretary of State for Cooperation Alain Joyandet said election observers had seen only minor irregularities.
