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PORT GENTIL : Gangs looted stores and petrol stations in the Gabonese city of Port Gentil on Friday amid new unrest after Ali Bongo, son of the country's late strongman, was declared winner of a presidential election.
Protesters torched the French consulate and attacked other French interests, including offices of French oil company Total, in the city on Thursday in the hours after Bongo's bitterly contest victory was declared.
Three women, a Briton, a Pole and a Gabonese, were injured in the troubles.
Police said more than 50 arrests were made during the night as gangs destroyed service stations and pillaged stores, ignoring a curfew ordered by authorities.
Few people ventured out onto the streets of the coastal city Friday and security forces staged high profile patrols.
France decided to evacuate its nationals out of Port Gentil, which is considered the bastion of opposition to the Bongo family. Ten thousand French people elsewhere in Gabon were advised to stay in their homes.
French troops were put on duty around the debris of the consulate as groups of young Gabonese threatened French nationals, accusing the former colonial power of colluding to fix the result of Sunday's election.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner denied his country had helped Ali Bongo and said Paris would accept the final results despite the opposition protests.
"There was barely any delay in the preparation and the carrying out of the election. It was all done transparently. France did not intervene. France did not have a candidate," Kouchner told French radio.
Ali Bongo, whose father Omar Bongo died in June, was declared the winner with 42 percent of votes cast in Sunday's election, putting him clearly ahead of his nearest rival Andre Mba Obame, a former interior minister, who won 26 percent of votes.
Main opposition leader Pierre Mamboundou came third with 25 percent. But all three had proclaimed victory after the polls closed.
Moved to a secret location, Mba Obame told AFP: "This is an electoral coup d'etat. I do not recognise the election results. It's me who won."
Security forces tear gassed and baton charged demonstrators, including Mba Obame and Mamboundou outside the electoral commission headquarters before the results were announced, witnesses and their supporters said.
The authorities denied there was any action against the opposition leaders.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged "calm and restraint by all concerned so that tensions do not escalate," his deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said at UN headquarters in New York.
The United States urged Gabon's government and citizens "to respond to the results peacefully," State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said.
In his only public comments since the result was announced, Ali Bongo, whose father ruled Gabon for 41 years, pledged to unite the country.
"As far as I am concerned, I am and I will always be the president of all the people of Gabon ... I am and I will always be at the service of all, without exclusion," he said at his campaign headquarters in Libreville on Thursday.
Home to 1.5 million people, Gabon is strategically important as the fourth largest oil producer in sub-Saharan African. It is also a major exporter of manganese and wood.
- AFP /ls
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