Gabon President Ali Bongo has been placed in retirement, the head of the country's presidential guard has told French newspaper Le Monde.
"He is a Gabonese head of state. He is retired and enjoys all his rights. He is a normal Gabonese, like everyone else," Gen Brice Oligui Nguema says.
More on this interview shortly.
Image source, Getty ImagesCelebrations in Libreville today
The military's takeover of Gabon is a "flagrant violation" of the regulations of the African Union (AU), one of its top officials has said.
AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat is following the situation "with great concern", a statement says. He "strongly condemns the coup attempt in the country as a way of resolving its crisis current post-election".
The statement also calls for the army and security forces to guarantee "the physical integrity of the president of the republic", along with his relatives and other government officials.
The commissioner stops short of calling for President Bongo to be reinstated, instead encouraging "all political, civilian and military players in Gabon to favor peaceful political paths leading to the rapid return to democratic constitutional order".
Gabon has been a member of the AU - a grouping of 55 African states - since 1963.
Gabon has had three leaders since it gained independence from France in 1960.
The first was Leon M'Ba, who became president in 1961. He was conservative and pro-France, and his term in office saw him take an increasingly authoritarian role.
Image source, Getty ImagesLeon M'Ba held the presidency from 1961-67
A coup d'état in 1964 saw him ousted briefly, before a French intervention restored him to the presidency. M'Ba died three years later.
He was succeeded by Omar Bongo, who ruled as president for more than four decades until his death in 2009.
Image source, Getty ImagesOmar Bongo is Gabon's longest serving leader
During his rule, Gabon had a very close relationship with France under a system known as "Francafrique" - in which the Gabonese government would receive political and military support in exchange for business favours.
Relations with France strained when Omar's son Ali Bongo won a contested election in 2009. A long-running corruption investigation into the Bongo family's assets followed.
Image source, Getty ImagesAli Bongo is currently under house arrest after the country's military launched a coup
In 2018, Bongo suffered a stroke which sidelined him for almost a year and led to calls for him to step aside.
Bongo ignored them and stood for re-election.
He was again re-elected on Saturday - but the army has said it's cancelling this result.
Image source, ReutersA woman embraces a soldier during celebrations in Port-Gentil, Gabon's second city
Thanks for joining our Africa Live coverage - which today is focused on the military takeover in the west African country of Gabon.
It began early this morning, when 12 soldiers appeared on television announcing they were cancelling the results of the recent election and dissolving "all the institutions of the republic".
Here's what's been happening in the hours since:
Hugh Schofield
Paris correspondent
Here in France, President Macron spoke on Monday about an “epidemic of putschs” and this “baroque alliance between supposed pan-Africans with neo-imperialists.”
He seemed in no doubt that African states were succumbing one by one - as dominos in fact - to the anti-French insinuations proffered by Russia and China.
What hurts is the apparent ingratitude of it all. In the last 10 years France has lost many soldiers defending some of these countries against Islamist insurgents.
In Macron’s view, if France hadn’t intervened in Mali in 2013, “some of these countries wouldn’t exist in the form they do today”.
In French eyes, it is the post-colonial burden: whatever happens, we get the rap.
Hugh Schofield
Paris correspondent
Earlier, we mentioned the recent trend of military takeovers in Central and West Africa. So, is there validity to the idea that when one country falls in a region, others fall as well? Here's the view of our correspondent in France, the former colonial power in Gabon.
The theory of a "domino effect" may have spawned a disastrous war in Vietnam - but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something to it.
Of course, each African country that has had a coup d'état has its own specific factors at play.
But you don’t have to be conspiracy-minded to detect a certain contagion.
Contagion doesn’t mean coordination. A Russian hand behind the juntas in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Gabon is much discussed, but not proven.
But there is a tide in events. A mood takes hold. The success of one breeds imitation elsewhere. "It can’t be done" becomes "it can be done".
Image source, Steeve Jordan/AFPNoureddin Bongo Valentin (left) with Gabonese minister Frank Nguema in 2019
We have more details on the arrest of one of President Ali Bongo's son, which was announced by coup leaders a little earlier.
According to French news agency AFP, it is the president’s eldest son Noureddin Bongo Valentin - thought to be 31 years old - who's been detained.
Valentin was named “co-ordinator of presidential affairs” in 2019 and remained in the post for 21 months, according to Radio France Internationale.
Also said to have been arrested were the president's chief of staff Ian Ghislain Ngoulou, two other presidential advisers and the two top officials in the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG).
The six are accused of treason, embezzlement, corruption and falsifying the president's signature, among other allegations, the military said.
Following our last post reporting an address from President Bongo, here's what he told his supporters.
'Make noise,' says Gabon's deposed president
Gabon's president has called on "friends all over the world" to "make noise" over the coup in Gabon, in a clip that's been circulating on social media.
Sitting in what he says is his residence - in a grand room complete with wood-panelled walls, ornate carpets and leather-bound books - Ali Bongo says: "My son is somewhere, my wife is in another place.
"Nothing is happening. I don't know what is going on."
He again urges his "friends" to speak up, before thanking them.
A communications company that was working for the presidency during the election has been in contact with the BBC to confirm the authenticity of the footage. It has been asked by Bongo's office to circulate the video.
Notably, Bongo speaks in English. The official language of Gabon - a former French territory, from which it gained independence in 1960 - is French.
The coups in Gabon and Niger are just the latest in what appears to be a rising trend in military interventions in West and Central Africa.
Last year there were five. Three ended in failure (Guinea-Bissau, The Gambia and the island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe) and two, both in Burkina Faso, were successful.
In 2021, there were six coup attempts in Africa, four of them successful.
But the prevalence of military takeovers is still far lower than in the years following independence.
Overall, Africa has experienced more coups than any other continent. Of the 18 coups recorded globally since 2017, all but one - Myanmar in 2021 - have been in Africa.
The chair of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat last year expressed concern about "the resurgence of unconstitutional changes of government".
Read more here.
Image source, .Gabon coup: General lifted up by troops during coup
Watch as the head of the presidential guard General Brice Oligui Nguema - who's been nominated by coup leaders to take charge of Gabon - is raised aloft by his troops.
You can also hear soldiers chanting "Oligui president".
These images were broadcast a short while ago by the military on state TV.
The secretary general of the Commonwealth has expressed fear over the military coup in Gabon, saying the group was monitoring the situation closely.
Patricia Scotland says the situation is "deeply concerning", adding: "The Commonwealth Charter is clear that member states must uphold the rule of law and the principles of democracy at all times."
Gabon joined the Anglophone bloc in June 2022 in a bid to ease their reliance on France - the former colonial power.
Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service
Image source, ReutersPeople in Libreville, Gabon's capital, having been celebrating
It's become a familiar scene these days in Africa - a few soldiers on state TV announcing that they have taken over.
This time a fraudulent election was the excuse - Ali Bongo, the incumbent president, had just hours earlier been declared the winner of a highly criticised poll. International observers and journalists had been barred from covering it.
In a patronage system where support is effectively bought, it is hard to gauge genuine support. But in Gabon there is no doubt that having been in power since 1967, many have had enough of the Bongo family dynasty. People were quick to take to the streets, appearing to be genuinely delighted. So far there’s no sign of a pushback.
For the international community, including the African Union, this presents a dilemma. France has rushed out with its usual condemnation. Its influence in Africa has waned significantly in recent years, and a call for yet more years of Ali Bongo is likely to go down in Gabon as well as a hot slap with a wet fish.
French oil giant TotalEnergies says its main priority is to ensure the safety of its employees and operations in Gabon.
It came after soldiers there announced they had seized power, shortly after the electoral body declared President Ali Bongo to have been re-elected for a third term.
TotalEnergies has 350 employees in the oil-rich country. It also said it was Gabon's main petrol distributor with 45 petrol stations there.
A Gabonese man living in Senegal has told the BBC of his anguish at seeing the coup unfold this morning.
But Eric Rofel Kenguele - who works in the financial sector in Dakar - also spoke of his relief that there had been no bloodshed.
"I want to thank God, my family is well. There hasn't been any violence and blood on the street. Apparently children and adults are out in the streets to express their joy and elation," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa podcast.
"Indeed, when citizens are supporting a coup it means that they are fed up.
"However, I remain divided between a feeling of freedom and anxiety at knowing what is going to happen in the next few hours and days. Because we fear a transition that may last longer than necessary or even go badly."
A little earlier, we brought you some pictures which appeared to show celebrations in the capital, Libreville.
Here's are some similar scenes elsewhere, too.
Image source, ReutersThese stills from a social media video show soldiers greeted by locals in Port-Gentil
Image source, ReutersPort-Gentil is the nation's second city
Image source, EPAPhotographers have also captured celebrations in Akanda, in the north-west
Below you can see Gabon's location in Africa. It is one of the continent's major oil producers.
Image source, .The satellite image below illustrates how this resource-rich nation is 90% covered by forest - you can read more on that here.
Image source, .
Image source, ReutersAn image of celebrations in the city of Port-Gentil
Thanks for joining this special coverage of the events in Gabon.
The picture is still emerging, so make sure to stay on this page for further updates.
More comment now from foreign powers - Russia says it is "deeply concerned" over the apparent coup in Gabon.
And France has reiterated its own anxiety over the situation; a fresh statement from Foreign Minister Olivier Véran says Paris wants the result of Gabon's recent election to be respected.
President Ali Bongo, 64, won a third term in office in elections held on Saturday. The army now says he is under house arrest.
More on that latest appearance on Gabonese state TV by military officers.
The coup leaders have put forward the head of the presidential guard as the leader of the transition, according to the broadcast - as cited by French news agency AFP.