{"id":37041,"date":"2023-09-01T12:12:34","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T06:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=37041"},"modified":"2025-04-22T10:24:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T04:54:21","slug":"gabon-coup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/gabon-coup\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabon Coup"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Gabon country profile<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Recent Military Takeovers in former French Colonies<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>India \u2013 Gabon Relationship<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>\u00a0<\/h2>\n<h2><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Military seized power in the West African country of Gabon, making it the eighth former French Colony in the region to see a coup d\u2019etat since 2020.<\/li>\n<li>The coup was announced on national TV minutes after election results handed <strong>President Ali Bongo his third consecutive<\/strong> term in power.<\/li>\n<li>After the army deposed him in a coup and put him under house arrest, he asked his supporters to make noise in his support.<\/li>\n<li>However, the crowds that have thronged the streets have instead celebrated the coup.\n<ul>\n<li><u>Bongo\u2019s family ruled Gabon for more than 55 years<\/u>, and he faced allegations of corruption, sham elections and failure to spend more of Gabon\u2019s oil and mineral revenues on the poor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Gabon country profile<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Geographical location<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/editor_images\/2023\/9\/1\/12\/39\/59\/64f18e4736324005b8788e2a_OI.PNG\" \/><\/li>\n<li>Gabon is located in Central Africa, along the west coast of the continent. It is situated near the equator.<\/li>\n<li>Gabon is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.<\/li>\n<li>Its position near the equator gives Gabon a <u>tropical climate and diverse ecosystems, including dense rainforests and coastal areas<\/u>.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Nearly 90% of the country is covered by forests<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Libreville is the capital<\/strong> and largest city of Gabon, located on the country&#8217;s western coast.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Political profile<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Gabon has had few leaders since its independence from France in 1960, with Omar Bongo ruling as president for more than four decades until his death in 2009.<\/li>\n<li>During his presidency, Gabon maintained a close relationship with France under a system known as &#8220;<strong>Francafrique&#8221;<\/strong>, receiving both political and military support in exchange for business favours.<\/li>\n<li>Gabon is a <strong>major oil producer<\/strong> but a third of its population live in poverty, according to the World Bank.\n<ul>\n<li><strong><u>A member of OPEC, Gabon is Africa\u2019s seventh-largest oil producer<\/u><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Recent Military Takeovers in former French Colonies<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/editor_images\/2023\/9\/1\/12\/40\/1\/64f18e4936324005b8788e2b_OI.PNG\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>India \u2013 Gabon Relationship<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>India and Gabon have enjoyed warm and friendly relations since the pre-independence era of Gabon.<\/li>\n<li>Both India and Gabon are members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).<\/li>\n<li>The then Vice President of India visited Gabon in May 2022 making it the <u>first-ever high-level visit of India to Gabon<\/u>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bilateral Trade<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It reached to USD 1.12 billion in 2021-22. India is the 2nd largest destination for Gabonese exports.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Energy Cooperation<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Gabon holds importance for India\u2019s energy security.<\/li>\n<li>India imported about USD 670 million worth crude oil from Gabon in 2021-22.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cooperation in Education<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>A number of Gabonese nationals pursue scholarship\/training programs.<\/li>\n<li>These programs are offered by India under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) and ICCR schemes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1)\u00a0What is the capital of Gabon?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Libreville is the capital and largest city of Gabon. Occupying 65 square kilometres (25 sq mi) in the northwestern province of Estuaire, Libreville is a port on the Komo River, near the Gulf of Guinea.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2)<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>What is Francafrique?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>&#8220;Fran\u00e7afrique&#8221; is a term often used to describe the historically close and complex relationship between France and its former African colonies, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is a portmanteau of &#8220;France&#8221; and &#8220;Afrique&#8221; (the French word for Africa). The concept of Fran\u00e7afrique encompasses various political, economic, and military ties that France has maintained with its former colonies in Africa since their independence.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-66654965\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Gabon coup: Army seizes power from Ali Bongo and puts him in house arrest<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/pib.gov.in\/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1830212\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>PIB<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-13376333\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>BBC<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-global\/military-seize-power-gabon-explained-8917462\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Indian Express<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gabon is located in Central Africa, along the west coast of the continent. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":37042,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37041","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}