- Vol 50 No 13
- 26th June 2009
On 16 June, Francophone leaders came to bury El HadjOmar Bongo Ondimba, éminence grise of the occult Françafrique networks, and to keep alive the personalised relations between France and its former colonies. Yet no current leader - Presidents Laurent Gba...
- Vol 50 No 12
- 12th June 2009
Foreign leaders head to Libreville for the 16 June state funeral of President Omar Bongo Ondimba, 'le Grand Camerade', and the cabinet meets to discuss the succession
- Vol 50 No 11
- 29th May 2009
A crafty old spendthrift nears his end, seeming to have the succession as well as the budget well under control
- Vol 50 No 11
- 29th May 2009
As Defence Minister, Ali Ben Bongo has brought in a new Chief of Army Staff, Colonel Major Jean-Claude Ella Ekogha, and a new head of the Conseil National de Sécurité, Col. Maj. Jean-Philippe Ntumpa Lebani. Before his father left for Spain,...
- Vol 50 No 6
- 20th March 2009
The death of First Lady Edith Lucie Bongo Ondimba née Sassou-Nguesso and her subsequent grand funeral in Libreville on 19 March has prompted a wave of sympathy and political manoeuvring from Africa’s Francophone elite and French officials. Some see it as ...
- Vol 49 No 21
- 17th October 2008
President Omar Bongo Ondimba’s anti-corruption drive has produced unexpected results.As Harvard University and the Mo Ibrahim Foundation announced that Gabon was among the top ten best governed African countries, another scandal among its top officials ha...
- Vol 49 No 9
- 25th April 2008
The election season has started with the usual components of fraud, corruption and attempts by the government to co-opt any credible opposition candidates. A review of the national electoral register ahead of the 27 April local elections showed that 110,0...
- Vol 48 No 22
- 2nd November 2007
Gabonese are outraged at the terms of a US$3 billion iron ore project at Bélinga and the likely damage to the country’s national parks. We hear that the recently founded Compagnie Minière de Bélinga (Comibel), jointly owned by C...
- Vol 48 No 15
- 20th July 2007
President Omar Bongo Ondimba, a close ally of Beijing, appears to have literally clipped the wings of Taiwan's African diplomacy.
- Vol 48 No 14
- 6th July 2007
On 22 June, a judge in Bordeaux, France, found Gabon's President Omar Bongo guilty of accepting a bribe to free French citizen René Cardona from gaol in 1996.