Gabon arrest minors after port-gentil riots

Authorities in Gabon say they have arrested around 30 young people, including minors, after violence in the economic hub Port-Gentil.

READ ALSO:Gabon’s interim president imposes strict holiday restrictions on officials

They are accused of vandalizing businesses and attacking passersby armed with axes, machetes, broken bottles, and knives, the interior ministry said on X late on Sunday.

The “gangs of idle youth” sowed “violence and fear” with attacks, theft, and pillaging in several neighborhoods of the city “claiming to protest against unemployment”, the ministry said in a statement.

In videos circulating on social media last week, some young people had described themselves as “the biggest bandits of Port-Gentil”.

READ ALSO:Gabon’s post-coup reform efforts under fire

On Saturday, security forces “arrested around 30 of these thugs”, the statement said, announcing legal proceedings and saying they would be named and shamed.

It comes just days before the first anniversary of Gabon’s current ruler General Brice Oligui Nguema coming to power after the army deposed former president Ali Bongo Ondimba the night his reelection was announced on August 30.

The Bongo dynasty had ruled the oil-rich central African nation for 55 years.