Gabon to grant delayed risk premium to armed forces

Gabon’s military-led government agreed this week to implement a decision by the former regime of President Ali Bongo Ondimba to grant armed and security forces a risk premium for their work in protecting populations, Gabo Review reports.

A cabinet meeting announced the plan pending modalities that remain to be defined, the media outlet notes. The risk premium payment was first introduced in 2015 but the policy has never been implemented after Bongo administration reportedly wiped out the special allowances for military personnel.

The administration back then indicated that armed and security forces will receive on-call allowance and risk premium but the plan never materialized.

A junta, led by transitional leader Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, seized power in the central African country on August 30, ending therefore decades of domination by the Bongo family.

Last week, the government also agreed to increase the defense budget by three per cent, up from $30 million of last year. The 2024 budget will cover clothing and food for the troops, as well as fuel for the various vehicles of the armed forces. The increase, follows several years of demands by the army for the improvement of working conditions under former President Omar Bongo Ondimba.