Gabon, a country located in Central Africa, crossed by Ecuador, bordering the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon, is a former French colony which became independent since August 17, 1960.
The country is one of the most prosperous in Africa thanks to its protected flora and fauna thanks to 13 national parks including the Lopé National Park, listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, its forest and petroleum resources. It displays the highest human development index in Africa according to the UN. Second per capita income behind Equatorial Guinea, its GDP increased by more than 6% per year for the period 2010-2012, however a large part of the population remains poor due to the inequality of income distribution.
The traces of the first populations which lived in Gabon, go back to 400,000 years and continue until the Iron Age. The first known inhabitants are the Pygmies who settled around 5,000 years before our era. They precede the Bantus who left 5,000 years ago from the Sahelian zone to the south and east, 1,000 or 2,000 years before our era. They arrived in Gabon in the 1st millennium BC. The first Europeans, the Portuguese arrived in the 15th century. Follow the Dutch who engage in the slave trade destined for the plantations of Sao Tome then with the trade towards America, just like rubber, wood, ivory …
In the 19th century, in 1886, Gabon became a colony which was merged in 1888 with that of the Congo and became distinct again in 1904. In 1910, the colonies of Gabon and Congo were integrated into French Equatorial Africa.
On August 17, 1960, Gabon gained independence, contrary to the wishes of its Prime Minister Léon Mba, who had requested that it become a French overseas department; the latter became its first president until his death in 1967 when he was replaced by his chief of staff, Albert-Bernard Bongo, known as Omar Bongo Ondimba, who established a single party system.
He created the Gabonese Democratic Party. Thanks to the exploitation of natural resources (wood, minerals and oil), he ensured the prosperity of the country and became one of France’s most reliable African allies, especially in international politics. In 1968, Omar Bongo had to accept under the influence of France, the pseudo-independence of Biafra (south-eastern Nigeria), but also that Libreville airport serves as a hub for arms deliveries in favor of Colonel Ojukwu (secessionist leader of Biafra).
A serious economic crisis at the end of the 1980s plunged Gabon into a political and social crisis following a sharp drop in oil. Following demonstrations and a national conference held in March-April 1990, important political reforms were adopted, including the creation of a national senate, the decentralization of finances, freedom of assembly and of the press, the abolition of the compulsory exit visa and multiparty system. The first multiparty legislative elections in almost 30 years were held in September-October 1990.
Omar Bongo was re-elected in 1993, 1998 and 2005, following elections where there is only one candidate, under contested conditions. After his death, Ali Bongo, Minister of Defense and son of Omar Bongo, became on September 3, 2009, the 3rd President of Gabon, elected by a majority vote in one round (41.79% of the votes cast). He is ahead of Pierre Mamboundou (25.64%) and André Mba Obame, new Gabonese opposition leader and former Minister of the Interior. Following suspicions of fraud, the results are disputed and riots break out, violently repressed by the police, loyal to power.
The presidential election of August 31, 2016 was won by Ali Bongo, by 5,000 votes. Following this, the opposition immediately denounced these results and riots broke out, even more violently repressed than in 2009, the opposition HQ was attacked by the presidential guard, causing many deaths. On September 24, Ali Bongo was proclaimed winner by the Constitutional Court with 50.66% of the vote, followed by Jean Ping with 47.24%, but the European Parliament declared in February 2017, the lack of transparency and the questionable results of the ballot .
In 2018, Ali Bongo, goes to recover in Morocco after a vascular accident; he made his return to the political scene in 2019 after a coup attempt in January by a unit of mutinous soldiers (it failed the same day) and having appointed a new Prime Minister, Julien Nkoghe Bekalé. While a clan war at the top is raging and ministerial reshuffles follow one another between January and December 2019, uncertainty remains about Ali Bongo’s state of health.
On June 23, MPs voted to decriminalize homosexual relations, overturning an amendment to the Penal Code passed a year earlier that condemned homosexuality as an « offense against morals ».
On July 16, 2020, Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda, economist by training, graduated from the Gabonese Institute of Economy and Finance with a specialization in public finance is appointed Prime Minister; former defense minister for 19 months, she is the first woman to hold the post of government leader in the country. She was also mayor of the capital Libreville in 2014 with the label of the presidential party, the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), but also having been Minister of the Budget since 2012.
This appointment comes 8 months after the launch by the Gabonese authorities of a vast anti-corruption operation called « Scorpion », which resulted in the imprisonment of the one who was considered, since the stroke of Mr. Bongo, as the strong man of the country, his chief of staff Brice Laccruche Alihanga and about twenty of his relatives including 4 former ministers.
Abroad, including in Paris, the Gabonese diaspora has resumed its fight started in 2016 for
the sovereignty of Gabon through the claim of the « victory » of Jean Ping in the presidential election of August 2016 including the sit-in Place du Trocadéro in Paris followed by a march to the Gabonese embassy in France .
John Cosa, one of the resistance actors in Paris, confirmed this information on the resumption of resistance activities, as did Doriane Herel Nzaou Ozenga, a very active political refugee in the resistance who specified that « the activities of the resistance have resumed since July 18 after the interruption several weeks linked to the global health crisis. The marches resumed the 1st weekend of August « , specifying that the program and activities are known at least until September 5 to continue to denounce the dictatorial regime of Ali Bongo.
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