former us ambassador to south africa, patrick gaspard, thank you forjoining us.. the african union has strongly condemned the military takeover in gabon. it also suspended the country from all participation in its activities. previously, the gabonese junta said it would phase in what it's calling transitional institutions, after the removal of president ali bongo. the soldiers gave no details on how long these institutions would remain in place or whether power might be handed back to a civilian government. bbc news regional africa editor will ross has been following developments. we have had another announcement from the military leaders in gabon saying general brice oligui nguema will be sworn in before the constitutional court on monday. the authorities have also tried to kind of calm the international reaction to the coup by saying that it will ensure the country sticks to its commitments, including paying off the debts that it currently has. at the same time, we have had an interesting development from the opposition coalition that was trying to defeat the p

former us ambassador to south africa, patrick gaspard, thank you forjoining us.me. the african union has condemned the military takeover in gabon. it also suspended the country from all participation in its activities. previously, the gabonese junta said it would phase in what it's calling transitional institutions, after the removal of president ali bongo in a coup. the soldiers gave no details on how long these institutions would remain in place or whether power might be handed back to a civilian government. a court has sentenced two members of the far—right proud boys militia to long prison terms for storming the us capitol building injanuary 202i. joseph biggs, a former leader of the proud boys, was given 17 years — one of the longest sentences among the hundreds convicted for the capitol attack. prosecutors say biggs was a key figure in the organised attempts to forcibly overturn presidentjoe biden�*s 2020 election victory. another leader, zachary rehl, received 15 years. brazil's former president, jair bolsonaro, and his wife, michelle, have faced police qu

well, for more, i spoke with patrick gaspard, former us ambassador to south africa.ing us. during your time as ambassador and since then, you have been in buildings like the one involved in this tragedy. can you tell us a little bit about what the conditions are like? thank you for having me on in such unfortunate circumstances and a need to face a condolences to all those effected by this horrible fire and to the people of johannesburg and south africa. we hope they will weekly recover. i have been in that community, used to be the central business in the apartheid area. i saw it first in 1990 and then over the years as it deteriorated. there is a particular building which is not very farfrom particular building which is not very far from that location, that i had the occasion to visit. it was full of migrant workers, struggling women with children, completely dilapidated, no running water, no electricity, people living literally one on top of one another inside the complex, it was a complex taken over by a cartel, built out of scaffolding, township type housing and