Read more about the article A New Military Junta Rises To Power In ex-French Africa: Gabon’s Long-Standing President Is Ousted Based On Election Fraud And Corruption Accusations
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A New Military Junta Rises To Power In ex-French Africa: Gabon’s Long-Standing President Is Ousted Based On Election Fraud And Corruption Accusations

On Wednesday 30 August, a group of men in army uniforms unseated Gabon’s long-serving president Ali Bongo Ondimba just a few minutes after he won re-election in highly contested presidential elections (Yeung, 2023). The vote had seen the governing Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) consolidating its majority in both houses of parliament, thus guaranteeing Ali Bongo over 64% of the votes cast and a third consecutive term in office (Bonny, 2023). Whilst seizing power, the newly established junta declared the election to be fraudulent, temporarily curtailed the Internet to allegedly prevent the spread of misinformation, shut the country’s borders ‘until further notice’, refused to allow vessels to leave the post of the capital Libreville, imposed a nightly curfew and dissolved ‘all the institutions of the republic’ (BBC News, 2023; Yeung, 2023; VOA News, 2023; Rédaction Africanews, 2023).

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5 September 2023
Read more about the article Tackling Corruption in the European Defence Sector: Challenges and Ways Forward
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Tackling Corruption in the European Defence Sector: Challenges and Ways Forward

On 9 December 2022, Eva Kaili, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and then one of the institution’s fourteen Vice Presidents, was arrested in possession of €150,000 in cash (Malingre & Stroobants, 2023). Kaili was subsequently charged with corruption, expelled from the Socialists & Democrats group in the European Parliament and suspended in her role of Vice President (Stamouli, 2022). The charges brought against Kaili were partly the result of a broader investigation into Qatari, Moroccan and Mauritanian influence over European officials in which €1.5m was seized and four individuals were charged with corruption (Matriche et al., 2022). This scandal raised awareness on the issue of corruption and rendered evident that its presence remains a reality. European officials have started to pay increasing attention to the issue since then and are proposing tougher measures to counter corruption. At a time when the European defence industry is booming, it is crucial to be wary of the risks of corruption that this entails.

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11 August 2023