31/08/2023
General Brice Clothaire Oligui Nguema, trained at the Royal Military Academy of Meknes in Morocco, is Gabon's new leader after 56 years.
———
Nguema is one of the most influential and enigmatic figures in the country today. The son of a military officer, he trained at the Royal Military Academy of Meknes, in Morocco.
His military skills were noticed by members of Gabon’s former President Omar Bongo’s Republican Guard. Nguema then served as Bongo’s “aides-de-camp” or military assistant to a commander in the guard, until the former Gabonese leader’s death in 2009.
When Omar Bongo’s son Ali Bongo rose to power in October 2009, Nguema was sent to Morocco and Senegal for diplomatic missions, but returned to Gabon in October 2018. In 2019, he took over as the head of the guard.
The Gabonese Republican Guard, whose military officers are recognisable by their green berets, is the presidential guard. As its head, Nguema ensured they not only protected the country’s president, but also tried to fortify Gabon’s internal security systems with more precision shooters and modern military equipment. He also introduced a security reform in the Republican Guard by setting up the Special Intervention Section (SIS), which is directly headed by Ali Bongo.
