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Vol 50 No 11

Published 29th May 2009


Gabon

A filial succession

A crafty old spendthrift nears his end, seeming to have the succession as well as the budget well under control

If President Omar Bongo Ondimba had a dollar for every time his demise was announced over the last 20 years, he would be even richer than he already is. The endgame in Gabon recalls the end of the single-party regimes of Côte d'Ivoire's President Félix Houphouët-Boigny and Togo's President Gnassingbé Eyadéma: Houphouët for the downward economic spiral, chaos and scapegoating of foreigners, Eyadéma for the son-in-waiting holding the keys to the armoury.

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