French companies have wide-ranging economic interests in Gabon and are already being buffeted by Wednesday's announced military takeover in Paris' former French colony in Central Africa.
Some 80 French companies are registered in Gabon, said Etienne Giros, president of the French Council of Investors in Africa (CIAN), a body whose members account for four-fifths of French business activity on the continent.
Smaller businesses, tradespeople, restaurants, lawyers, insurers and financial services companies add dozens more to the total, he told AFP news agency.
In 2022, Gabon became the biggest destination for French exports among the six member countries of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) which also includes Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of the Congo and Equatorial Guinea.
French companies sold 536 million euros ($585 million) worth of goods in Gabon, according to finance ministry figures, including farm produce and food, electronics goods, IT equipment and pharmaceutical products.
Manganese mines
Mining group Eramet, one of the biggest French companies in Gabon, said Wednesday that it had stopped its activities there "for the safety of staff and the security of operations", but added later that it would "progressively" resume its activities.
It employs 8,000 people in the oil- and mineral-rich central African country, and its local subsidiary extracts manganese ore -- a mineral used in steelmaking and batteries -- from the Moanda fields, the world's largest manganese mines.
Gabon is the world's second-biggest manganese producer after South Africa, and Comilog extracts 90% of Gabon's manganese, with the remainder handled by Chinese company CICMHZ.
Eramet's Setrag unit, meanwhile, operates the Trans-Gabon Railway, the country's only train line.
Energy giant TotalEnergies has been present since 1928 in Gabon, which is sub-Saharan Africa's fourth-biggest oil producer and a member of the OPEC cartel.
Sudden exodus?
TotalEnergies told AFP news agency that the company was "mobilised to ensure the security of its staff and its operations which is its top priority" in the wake of the soldiers' announcement of a coup.
TotalEnergies runs seven oil extraction sites in Gabon as well as a network of a few dozen petrol stations, and last year invested in Gabon's forestry sector.
Maurel and Prom, another hydrocarbon exploration and production company, said on Wednesday the situation in Gabon had not affected its sites, and business was running normally.
Oil company Perenco, also active in Gabon. Giros said it was too early to quantify the ultimate impact of the situation on French companies, but he said he did not expect a "sudden exodus".
The French government said it was following the situation in Gabon with ''greatest attention'' as the military action was unfolding.
All coups witnessed in West and Central Africa since 2020 happened in former French colonies including Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Niger. The situation has fueled anti-French sentiments in across the region.
