Gabon

Smuggling is one of the biggest open secrets in Gabon’s forestry sector. Ever since the government began trying to mandate more local value-added processing of logs, the raw...

On 1 June, President Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba sacked Housing Minister Blaise Louembe – who has only had the job since January – and the entire staff of...

New technical studies have found that the Bélinga iron ore mine in northeastern Gabon contains almost four times the original estimated resources and the Libreville government is actively...

Newish President Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba aims to end Gabon’s economic dependence on oil along with its traditional ties to France. A 9-12 November trip to Singapore yielded...

When Gabon’s President El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba was alive, his ministers had nothing but praise for the nearly US$4 billion Bélinga iron ore mine and associated logistics projects, described...

Gabon's politicians continue to question the delays in the starting-up of the Bélinga iron ore mine and its associated infrastructure works. But financing issues and constant threats of renegotiation have not...

Viewed from the outside, new President Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba peacefully assumed the presidency on 16 October, after waiting more than a month for votes to be recounted...

The face of the late President Omar Bongo Ondimba still figures large on posters along the main boulevards of Libreville. Although his photographic image is fading in the...

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...

The death of El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba gives French President Nicolas Sarkozy the clearest chance to break with the opaque Françafrique networks, although he has avoided previous...