Morocco remains neutral on Gabonese military coup, despite friendship with Ali Bongo

Rabat has insisted on preserving stability in Gabon and has remained neutral regarding the military coup that removed the Gabonese president Ali Bongo Ondimba, the Moroccan king's childhood friend, from power on Wednesday, 29 August.

"Morocco underlines the importance of preserving the stability of this brother country and the tranquillity of its population," read the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a brief press release published on Wednesday.

The Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Morocco "trusts in the wisdom of the Gabonese nation, its strong forces, and its national institutions, to move towards a perspective allowing it to act in the best interests of the country (...) and to respond to the aspirations of the brother Gabonese people."

The Central African nation has been among Morocco's main African allies since the reign of King Hassan II, a close associate of Omar Bongo, the father of the ousted president.

Ali Bongo, 64, took over from his father, who died of cardiac arrest while receiving treatment for intestinal cancer in Span in 2009, following nearly 42 years in office.

Over the past decade, the two states maintained close and privileged relations, notably thanks to the long-lasting friendship between King Mohammed VI and President Ali Bongo Ondimba.

The ousted president — currently under house arrest in Libreville — spent part of his adolescence in Morocco. At this time, the friendship between the two future leaders was born.

"I remember how it happened. We arrived in Morocco; I spent a few days there first, trying to find myself. The king, my brother, our brother, our brother. The king has done everything for me," he said in April during the celebration of the 55th anniversary of his party.

The Moroccan monarch regularly visits Gabon for private stays. At the start of this year, he stayed there for almost three months at his residence on the Pointe-Denis peninsulaMeanwhilele, Ali Bongo owns a villa in the palm grove of Marrakech, according to Gabonese and Moroccan media.

The military's power grab began Wednesday, shortly after Gabon's election authority said Bongo had been re-elected president for the third term following last weekend's election. 

"I want to send a message to all our friends, all over the world, to tell them to make some noise. To make noise, because people here arrested me and my family," said Bongo shortly after the coup in a video filmed in his residence.

Men in army uniforms announced on national television that they had seized power. They said the election results were voided, all borders shut, and numerous government bodies dissolved, including both houses of parliament.

The instigator of the current coup in Gabon, Brice Clothaire Oligui Nguema, was trained in the Royal Moroccan military academy in Meknes and served as a military attaché at the Gabonese embassies in Morocco and Senegal.

In 2018, Oligui Nguema was recalled to Gabon to head the Directorate General of Special Services (DGSS).

The African Union (AU) has "strongly condemned Nguema's "attempted coup" in Gabon. 

The European Union's top diplomat said the bloc "rejects" the coup, though he said the EU shared "deep concerns" about how the electoral process was held. He said the EU currently has no plans to evacuate its staff based in Gabon.

Other European nations, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and France, made similar statements.