Gabon’s new strongman, General Brice Oligui Nguema, has vowed, after being sworn in as interim president on Monday, to restore civilian rule through “free, transparent and credible elections”.

In a speech after taking the oath of office, Nguema said the elections would be the stepping stone to “handing power back to the civilians,” although he did not give a timeline.

General Nguema said he was seeking the participation of all of Gabon’s “core groups” to draft a new constitution, which “will be adopted by referendum.”

He also said he would be instructing the future government to consider ways of “amnestying prisoners of conscience and facilitating the return of all exiles” from abroad.

At his inaugural, Nguema said he was “surprised” at foreign criticism of the coup.

“We are greatly surprised to hear certain international organizations condemn the act taken by soldiers who were simply upholding their oath to the flag — to save their country at the risk of their lives” .

General Nguema, who is head of the elite Republican Guard, led a coup last week that brought the curtain down on 55 years of dynastic rule by President Ali Bongo Ondimba and his father Omar, who died in 2009.