Gabon's coup leader, General Brice Oligui Nguema (right), was sworn in as 'transitional president' on September 4. (Source: ANP)

Gabon's state television reported on September 5 that the head of the country's new military government, General Brice Oligui Nguema, met with Central African Republic President Faustin Archange Touadera. The meeting came after the August 30 coup in Gabon that overthrew the Bongo family's 55-year rule.

Earlier, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) appointed Mr. Touadera as “facilitator of the political process” in Gabon. He was tasked with meeting all Gabonese actors and partners, with the aim of bringing the country back to constitutional order as soon as possible. Gabonese television did not give details of the negotiations.

The move comes shortly after Equatorial Guinea, an ECCAS member, said Gabon had been suspended from the 11-nation organization on September 4.

In a statement on social network X , Equatorial Guinea Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue said ECCAS had also ordered the bloc's headquarters to be moved from Gabon's Libreville to Malabo, his nation's capital.

Earlier, in his inauguration speech as “transitional president” on September 4, General Brice Oligui Nguema, Chairman of the Transition and Institutional Restoration Commission (CTRI), said the coup took place “bloodlessly” with no reports of casualties.

The military coup said it had dissolved national institutions and annulled the election results. General Oligui Nguema also vowed to create more democratic institutions that respect human rights in Gabon, but said it would proceed “without haste”.

General Brice Oligui Nguema, head of the Republican Guard, led a military coup on August 30 that ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba. The event took place just minutes after Mr. Bongo, 64, was declared the winner of the August 26 presidential election.

Gabon joins Mali, Guinea, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Niger among the African countries that have experienced coups in the past three years, a trend that has raised alarm bells across the continent.