Military Units and Armed Intimidation in Gabon: The Professional Motivations of Extortion by Soldiers

In 2012, military units deployed in the Kinguele and Akebe-Ville districts had the mission to distribute water to the civilian population. During this civilian-military operation, a portion of the soldiers engaged in acts of intimidation and extortion against the population. This article explains how the phenomenon of intimidation by Gabonese soldiers is based on professional motivations and not only political logic. The article focuses on the soldiers’ social condition, which appears as a professional group separate from their hierarchy. The phenomenon of intimidation is interpreted at first as the professional frustration of the troop. The intimidation phenomenon is not only dependent on the authoritarian political system, it also depends on economic logics.