The 30 August coup was an elite affair designed to sustain a system that risked being cracked apart by another presidential term for a still evidently unwell Ali Bongo Ondimba widely perceived as the puppet of his wife Sylvia and son Nourredin Bongo Valentin...
Bongo we hear may move to Morocco once the legal position of his wife Sylvia Bongo Ondimba and their son Noureddin Bongo Valentin is resolved (AC Vol 60 No 25 The son also rises)...
Such a deal would definitely not include their son Noureddin Bongo Valentin who is now under a much more rigorous detention and is shaping up to be the villain of the old order...
With the installation of his son Noureddin Bongo-Valentin as the 'general coordinator of presidential affairs' recuperating stroke victim President Ali Bongo Ondimba – or those acting for him – has reasserted the Bongo clan's hold on power...