The Peace and Security Council of the African Union has announced that it is convening a meeting today to address the military coup in Gabon.
As reported by Al Jazeera, the council members are deliberating on how to respond to the actions of the officers who ousted President Ali Bango and established their own leader, marking another instance in the series of coups across West and Central Africa that regional powers have been unsuccessful in countering.
In a statement shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, the AU Peace & Security Council stated that it is currently in session to discuss the situation in Gabon. The meeting is being presided over by Bankole Adeoye of Nigeria, the AU commissioner for political affairs, and Willy Nyamitwe, who currently holds the rotating chair of the council, representing Burundi.
The coup has brought an end to the nearly sixty-year rule of the Bongo family and has presented a new challenge for a region that has grappled with eight coups since 2020. Nigeria’s recently elected president has referred to this situation as a “contagion of autocracy.”
