Brice Oligui Nguema

The son of a Teke mother and Fang military officer,^[11][12] Oligui was born in Haut-Ogooué Province, Gabon, which was regarded as a stronghold of the ruling Bongo family.^[13] He is a maternal cousin of Ali Bongo, his predecessor as president.^[14] Oligui was mostly raised by his mother and her family in Haut-Ogooué,^[13][15] and studied at Omar Bongo University.^[16]

Oligui studied at Meknes Royal Military Academy in Morocco.^[17] He served as an aide-de-camp to President Omar Bongo until his death in 2009. He then served as a military attaché at the Gabonese embassies in Morocco and Senegal.^[18]

In October 2018, he was recalled to Gabon where he replaced President Ali Bongo's half-brother Colonel Frédéric Bongo at the head of the intelligence service of the Republican Guard.^[13][19] He was then promoted to brigadier general in April 2019.^[13] In 2021 he restarted Operation Mamba, a campaign to arrest corrupt officials.^[20]

He took over as head of the Gabonese Republican Guard in April 2020, replacing General Grégoire Kouna, a cousin of then President Ali Bongo.^[21] He significantly increased the Special Interventions Section (SIS), a special unit placed under the direct authority of the President, increasing it from around thirty to more than 300 elements.^[19] He also composed a song which included the line "I would defend my president with honour and loyalty".^[18]

According to a 2020 Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) investigation, he owns several properties in the United States worth more than $1 million^[22] and also helped expand the Bongos' overseas businesses. Asked about these dealings, he said they were a "private affair".^[18]

Officials of Bongo's regime and others who had interacted with Oligui described him as a "fairly intelligent man, easy to talk to", "discreet" and "a man of consensus" who is "very appreciated by his men".^[13]

On 30 August 2023, Nguema and his Republican Guards took power without encountering any resistance during a coup d'état. This occurred just hours after the electoral authorities announced in the middle of the night that the incumbent president, Ali Bongo, had won a third seven-year term with a significant 64% of the vote in the 2023 Gabonese presidential election a few days prior.^[23] Following the coup, the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions named Oligui as the interim president of Gabon in an announcement aired on state television.^[24][17] He was later seen on the shoulders of jubilant army personnel calling him the "President".^[25]

In an interview with Le Monde later in the day, he referred to Bongo as "retired", and said that the military had staged the coup due to discontent that had been growing in the country since Bongo's stroke in 2018, his decision to run for a third term, the disregarding of the country's constitution and the conduct of the election.^[26] His appointment as interim president was later confirmed by other generals,^[27] and he was formally sworn in as "transitional president" at the Presidential Palace on 4 September.^[28][29] In his inaugural address, he pledged to hold "free, transparent" elections but did not give an exact date as to when. He also announced the formation of a new government in the coming days and proposed new electoral legislation, a new penal code, a referendum on a new constitution, and the release of all political prisoners.^[30]

In October 2023, Oligui announced that he would give up his salary as president and rely instead on his wages as commander of the Republican Guard.^[31] In March 2025, Oligui announced that he would run for president in his own right in the 2025 Gabonese presidential election on 12 April.^[32] In the lead-up to the election, Oligui created his political platform, Rally of Builders.^[33] He was elected with nearly 95% of the votes and was inaugurated on 3 May.^[34][35]

On 5 July 2025, Oligui formally established a new political party, the Democratic Union of Builders (UDB), succeeding the RDB platform.^[36] In the 2025 Gabonese parliamentary election the UDB won 44% of the vote in the first round and 101 of the 140 seats in the National Assembly, establishing majority control of the legislature in support of his administration. The former-ruling Gabonese Democratic Party became the main opposition with 17 seats.

On 12 August 2025, Oligui's government issued an amnesty for participants in the 2023 coup and the 2019 Gabonese coup attempt as part of promises he made during his election campaign.^[37]

Oligui is a Christian.^[41] His brother-in-law Régis Onanga Ndiaye is his Minister for Foreign Affairs.^[42]

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