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US Halts Gabon Aid After Military Takeover

by Agence France-Presse

   WASHINGTON --

   The United States said Tuesday it would halt assistance to Gabon after
   the military took charge last month.

   "The U.S. government is pausing certain foreign assistance programs
   benefiting the government of Gabon while we evaluate the
   unconstitutional intervention by members of the country's military,"
   Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

   He said that the United States was maintaining diplomatic and consular
   operations in the oil-rich Central African country.

   The move is temporary as the State Department considers a formal
   determination that Gabon experienced a military coup, which under U.S.
   law would snap off assistance.

   U.S. officials have previously said that U.S. assistance was minimal to
   Gabon, run by the Bongo family for more than half a century.

   Washington has a larger presence in both security and economic
   assistance in Niger, another African nation where the military recently
   took power.

   Gabonese military leaders on Aug. 30 overthrew Ali Bongo Ondimba just
   as he was proclaimed the winner of an election widely criticized for
   irregularities.

   The military installed as prime minister the opposition leader, Raymond
   Ndong Sima, who in an address to the United Nations last week promised
   to take steps to hold new elections and called on the West not to
   condemn the coup "without nuance."