Brig. Gen. Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, the transitional president of Gabon, will visit Uganda on an official trip from August 1 to 3 and will be hosted by President Yoweri Museveni, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Oligui Nguema assumed the role of interim president of Gabon following the 2023 coup d’état that ousted President Ali Bongo.
The Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions announced his appointment on state television.
A military officer, Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema also serves as chairman of the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions and Commander-in-Chief of the Gabonese Republican Guard.
He is believed to have played a significant role in the coup.
Born in Haut-Ogooué Province, a stronghold of the ruling Bongo family, Oligui Nguema is the son of a Teke mother and a Fang military officer.
He is a cousin of former President Ali Bongo. Oligui was primarily raised by his mother and her family and studied at Omar Bongo University.
He received military training at the Meknes Royal Military Academy in Morocco.
Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema served as an aide-de-camp to President Omar Bongo until his death in 2009 and then worked as a military attaché at the Gabonese embassies in Morocco and Senegal.
In October 2018, he was recalled to Gabon, where he succeeded President Ali Bongo’s half-brother, Colonel Frédéric Bongo, as head of the intelligence service of the Republican Guard. He was promoted to Brigadier General in April 2019.
In 2021, he revived Operation Mamba, a campaign to arrest corrupt officials. Oligui Nguema took over the leadership of the Gabonese Republican Guard in April 2020, replacing General Grégoire Kouna, a cousin of then-President Ali Bongo.
