Central Africa’s CEMAC bloc is expected by the International Monetary Fund to have suffered a 0.6 percent economic contraction in 2017, an improvement on last year’s 1 percent but well below an earlier forecast of 0.7 percent growth.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-43288 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/imf-headquarters.jpg" alt="Low oil out impacts Angola’s economic growth" width="600" height="340" />
The oil-producing zone &#8212; comprising Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Congo Republic and Central African Republic &#8212; has been hit by a slump in crude prices since 2014 and by cutbacks in public spending.
The IMF said in a statement late on Monday that it had revised up the public debt-to-GDP ratio for the region to over 50 percent as of the end of 2016. The ratio stood at 28 percent at the end of 2014.
Several CEMAC countries receive financial assistance from the IMF, and Congo Republic is currently in negotiations for a bailout after its public or publicly guaranteed debt spiked this year to 110 percent of GDP.
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Reporting by Sofia Christensen; Editing by Aaron Ross/Jeremy Gaunt
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Central African economies contracted this year, but by less than before -IMF

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Igor Nyambie Simard, adviser to the President, Gabon says the new Owendo International Port will help the country diversify its economy. CNBC Africa&#8217;s Onyi Sunday caught up with him at the inauguration of the port.

Gabon aims to diversify economy with new Owendo Port

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Mathieu Peller, Director for West Africa at Meridiam, says Gabon&#8217;s new Owendo Port will help diversify the country&#8217;s economy. CNBC Africa&#8217;s Onyi Sunday caught up with him and discussed the benefits that the port could bring to the country.

Owendo Port to offer opportunities for economic diversification

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CNBC Africa spoke to Gagan Gupta, President of Olam International at the opening of the new Owendo Port in Libreville, Gabon and discussed the factors that contributed toOwendo Port project&#8217;s success.

Owendo Port project completed in 18 months

An internal United Nations inquiry has identified 25 peacekeepers from Burundi and 16 from Gabon accused of sexual abuse and exploitation in the Central African Republic in 2014 and 2015, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Monday.
&#8220;Responsibility for further investigations lies with Burundi and Gabon,&#8221; said Dujarric, adding that the United Nations had asked those states to interview the identified troops, who all left Central African Republic before the allegations surfaced.﻿

UN identifies 41 Burundi & Gabon troops accused of abuse

Gabon&#8217;s prime minister on Sunday named a new government in the wake of disputed elections, but it contained no representatives of opposition leader Jean Ping, who says the vote was rigged.
According to a government statement, the only opposition leader named in Prime Minister Emmanuel Issozet Ngondet&#8217;s cabinet of 40 people is Bruno Ben Moubamba, who came in a distant third in the Aug. 27 vote.
Moubamba was chosen as deputy prime minister and minister for urbanisation and social habitats.
President Ali Bongo was declared the election winner by fewer than 6,000 votes. France called for a recount, and the European Union said it found anomalies in Bongo&#8217;s stronghold province of Haut-Ogooue, where he won 95 percent on a 99.9 percent turnout.
Bongo became leader in 2009 on the death of his father, who ruled for 42 years. The win gives Bongo another seven years in office.
Ping said last week he did not recognize Bongo&#8217;s legitimacy and called for talks on his own terms to form a new republic, spurning an offer of dialogue by the president.
Most members of the new government came from the ruling party, despite previous statements by the government that it sought a political opening with the opposition. The cabinet includes 12 women.﻿

Gabon names new government, no opposition members of Ping

Gabon&#8217;s opposition leader Jean Ping called on Thursday for national talks to form a &#8220;new republic&#8221; and urged foreign powers to impose sanctions on allies of President Ali Bongo, sworn in this week after a disputed election in the oil-producing nation.
Ping remained intransigent during his speech in the capital Libreville, saying he refused to recognise Bongo&#8217;s presidency. But his appeal for dialogue &#8212; albeit on his own terms &#8212; could help usher in a return to normal after post-election violence last month killed at least six people.
Ping ridiculed Bongo&#8217;s earlier appeals for talks, saying that the president, who came to power in a contentious 2009 election following his father Omar Bongo&#8217;s death after 42 years in power, had won fraudulently.
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Instead, he said he would organise his own talks, though he provided few details.
&#8220;This inclusive national dialogue will be&#8230;the occasion to put in place the foundations of a new republic,&#8221; he said.
Ping also called for sanctions against the authors of what he called &#8220;a military-electoral coup d&#8217;etat&#8221; and urged the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to come to Gabon to investigate violence after Bongo was declared the winner.
Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a statement on Thursday that she had begun a preliminary examination of the situation in the country at the request of the government. She will decide later whether to open a formal investigation. [nA5N197016]
Bongo&#8217;s victory in last month&#8217;s poll by less than 6,000 votes drew accusations of fraud from Ping. France called for a recount and the European Union said it found anomalies in Bongo&#8217;s stronghold province of Haut-Ogooue, where he won 95 percent of the vote on a 99.9 percent turnout.
But fears of resurgent violence after the Constitutional Court upheld Bongo&#8217;s victory last week failed to materialise and Bongo was sworn in at a subdued ceremony on Tuesday. [nL8N1C34KC]
He has promised to name an inclusive new government in the coming days and to address some of the issues that have fuelled anger in the country of 1.8 million, like youth unemployment and over-reliance on dwindling oil revenues.
However, the conduct of the poll may hurt his international reputation as a reformer, analysts said. Just a handful of African leaders attended his inauguration.﻿

Gabon leader's legitimacy rejected by opposition

In the heyday of former President Omar Bongo, Gabon and its oil wealth were a central pillar of &#8220;La Francafrique&#8221;, a shadowy network that enabled France&#8217;s troops to defend African autocrats in exchange for juicy contracts for French companies.
Thanks partly to this web of diplomacy and trade backed by French firepower, Bongo stayed in office for 42 years before his death in 2009. France&#8217;s energy firms, meanwhile, had undisputed claims to some of the continent&#8217;s richest oil fields.
But the days of France throwing its weight behind a leader for commercial favours may be numbered, which presents a challenge for French businesses in West Africa, a largely Francophone region because of its colonial past
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Ali Bongo, the son of the late president, was inaugurated for a second term on Tuesday after an election whose credibility EU observers seriously called into question.
France&#8217;s position has been clear since the Aug. 27 poll: it has &#8220;doubts&#8221; about its credibility, so it won&#8217;t endorse Bongo as the winner against his main opponent Jean Ping &#8211; a clear message that Bongo&#8217;s half-century family dynasty can no longer count on support from Gabon&#8217;s former colonial master.
Bongo denies unduly influencing the election, and Gabon&#8217;s top court upheld the result.
Yet his father used to win elections with so little credibility that in 1986 he got over 99 percent of the vote, and four years later, when protests erupted, French troops stepped in to quell them.
France&#8217;s Elf won every oil licence in a bidding round shortly after, according to British journalist Nicholas Shaxson in his 2008 book Poisoned Wells.
&#8220;That period is behind us,&#8221; French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told the France 2 TV channel this month.
&#8220;We do not want &#8230; to interfere in countries&#8217; internal affairs,&#8221; he said, articulating a trademark policy of Socialist President Francois Hollande, who four years ago pledged that &#8220;the era of La Francafrique is over&#8221; while in Senegal.
OFFICIAL CHANNELS
A French diplomat told Reuters that current thinking in the French government was that Paris could no longer automatically back an ally, even when trade interests are at stake. If the leader&#8217;s popularity fades, in elections or on the streets, France will distance itself.
&#8220;The era of us picking someone and saying &#8216;you&#8217;re the next president&#8217; is over,&#8221; another French diplomat said, even when France has &#8220;specific interests in one country or another&#8221;.
&#8220;France has changed quite a lot,&#8221; said Paul Melly, associate fellow in the Africa Programme of London-based international affairs think-tank Chatham House.
&#8220;The time when the French intervened to help Omar Bongo &#8230; that was the old La Francafrique, looking after your chums,&#8221; he said, an approach that was now &#8220;basically impossible&#8221;.
In Burkina Faso, where crowds ousted Blaise Compaore in 2014 as he tried to extend his 27-year rule, France backed away from its former friend, having quietly told him it was a bad idea.
Socialist Hollande has shown no interest in cultivating the decades-old clandestine networks linking French businessmen and intelligence agents to African politicians that were created by France&#8217;s right-wing former President Charles de Gaulle.
&#8220;There really has been a shift to the idea that if there are to be negotiations with African partners they have to go through official channels,&#8221; said Aline Leboeuf, a researcher at the Institute Francais.
&#8216;OTHER OPTIONS&#8217;
The challenge posed to French companies present in Africa is complex, but it is clear the privileges they used to enjoy are being eroded.
A 2013 Gabon oil licensing round doled out 18 blocks to companies from around the world, but French oil major Total, Elf&#8217;s successor following a merger, was left empty-handed. The following year, Gabon ordered Total to pay $805 million in back taxes, which the company said was an unfounded tax adjustment.
Total declined to comment for this story.
Other sectors that similarly rely on good relations with African governments &#8211; like telecoms and mining, in which companies like Orange and Areva respectively operate &#8211; could also be vulnerable.
Orange declined to comment.
A spokesman for Areva said the company would &#8220;continue to invest in exploration and innovation to find new deposits,&#8221; but did not address the question of Africa risks.
Some officials and companies say the impact of the end of La Francafrique should not be overstated, since globalisation has been opening the field to competition anyway.
Ali Bongo, who has lived in Los Angeles and had a son in elite English boarding school Eton, made a point of trying to expand ties beyond the Francophone world.
France, meanwhile, has been diversifying its own ties.
In a shift from the past, it is increasingly seeking opportunities in former British colonies like Kenya and Botswana; the French government&#8217;s Africa department now has more experts in east Africa than west, according to government sources. A month ago, Total won a production licence in Uganda.
&#8220;France has accepted the fact that &#8230; it has a lot less ability to influence local politics,&#8221; said historian Nathaniel Powell, who specialises in French-African relations, adding that it used to be a condition of working with an African leader that he would not allow in American companies.
&#8220;They used to pretty much own the Gabonese economy,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Now African elites have much more leverage, because they have the Chinese, they have other options.&#8221;
 
(Additional reporting by John Irish, Marine Pennetier, Richard Lough and Geert De Clercq in Paris; Editing by Pravin Char)﻿

France will not endorse Gabon's Bongo, leaving him out in the cold

Gabon President Ali Bongo was sworn in for a second term on Tuesday and called for unity at a low-key ceremony following a razor-thin election victory whose integrity was questioned by international observers.
Bongo&#8217;s victory by less than 6,000 votes has drawn unwelcome scrutiny on the president, whose family has ruled the oil-producing state in Central Africa for 49 years.
France called for a recount and the European Union said it detected anomalies in Bongo&#8217;s stronghold province of Haut-Ogooue, where he won 95 percent of the vote on a 99.9 percent turnout. Opposition leader Jean Ping said the election was rigged.
&#8220;The elections are over. We must move on to other things,&#8221; said Bongo in a speech at the red-carpeted palace during his inauguration to a fresh seven-year term.
Fears of violence when the Constitutional Court declined Ping&#8217;s petition for a recount and ratified the result have not materialized but Tuesday&#8217;s inauguration ceremony was kept low-key in an apparent attempt to forestall any possible trouble.
Riot gear was preemptively laid out alongside military vehicles on main streets, but many residents did not even know the inauguration was taking place.
&#8220;I invite all the major stakeholders in the nation to sit down together in order to find solutions that will satisfy our compatriots,&#8221; said Bongo who took power in 2009 on the death of his father who ruled for 42 years.
At least six people died in clashes between protesters and security forces when the initial results of the Aug. 27 vote were announced.
The ceremony, attended by the presidents of Mali, Togo, Niger, and Sao Tome and Principe, was announced to the press only the day before.
&#8220;The thief has no shame,&#8221; said Joseph Awasi, 50, as he watched Bongo walk the red carpet on a small TV in a bar.
Other Gabonese expressed indifference to the event, which they considered little more than a formality. Small flags were raised along boulevards in the city centre but there were no other signs of celebration.
&#8220;Gabonese are afraid to leave their homes. There are checkpoints everywhere,&#8221; said Auriol Ondgibi, 27, an unemployed man who waited for the ceremony to start as he ate his breakfast at a cafe. &#8220;I want the country to return to normal.&#8221;
Ping has rejected Friday&#8217;s court ruling as biased, and the European Union said doubts about the integrity of the process were legitimate.﻿

Gabon president Bongo sworn in after disputed poll

Gabon will return to normal after a bitterly disputed election, its newly re-elected President Ali Bongo said, as soldiers patrolled and military aircraft flew over a capital that has been bracing for another explosion of violence.
The Constitutional Court late on Friday threw out a challenge against the election results by rival Jean Ping, enabling Bongo to extend his family&#8217;s dynastic 50-year rule over the small, oil-producing central African country.
Ping swiftly rejected the ruling as biased, and many Gabonese feared a return to the violence that killed at least six people &#8211; Ping&#8217;s supporters say it was more than 50 &#8211; when the result was first announced at the start of the month.
But in a nation that usually manages to avoid the massive bloodshed that afflicts other countries in the region, like Congo and Central African Republic, when power is contested, Bongo said he was confident of a peaceful resolution.
&#8220;It is business as usual. We are not worried about this state of crisis,&#8221; Bongo told Reuters in an interview late on Saturday. &#8220;I think that we will go back to normal &#8230; Gabonese are peace-loving people.&#8221;
On Sunday, soldiers deployed along main roads and a helicopter hovered over Ping&#8217;s headquarters. A fighter jet roared above the city. The red and white taxis that normally ply its palm-lined seaside avenues were mostly absent.
&#8220;Things are not normal. The people&#8217;s voice was stolen,&#8221; Richard Obame, 46, an unemployed Ping supporter, said, after the jet noise had died down.
&#8220;If it was calm, would we need the military presence on the streets and the helicopters above the house of Mr Ping?&#8221;
And yet Ping, whom authorities have threatened to arrest for inciting violence, has so far refrained from calling people on to the streets. That raises the possibility of a peaceful resolution, although Ping insists that the will of the Gabonese people be respected.
 
&#8220;OPEN GOVERNMENT&#8221;
Ali Bongo came to power in a contentious 2009 election following the death of his father Omar Bongo, who was president of Gabon for 42 years and to whom Ping himself was very close.
&#8220;Bongo Junior&#8221;, as he is nicknamed, is showing signs of wanting to handle opponents in much the same way his father did: by bringing them into the tent. On Saturday he called for members of opposition parties to come and join his cabinet.
Communications minister Alain-Claude Bilie By Nze was quoted on France&#8217;s Journal du Dimanche website on Sunday as saying that from next week there would be &#8220;an open government, with members of the opposition, civil society and independent personalities.&#8221;
Whether this will be &#8220;business as usual&#8221; for Gabon and the Bongo dynasty may partly depend on the international reaction.
Gabon has never had a poll that international observers judged free and fair, and Western powers, especially ex-colonial master France, always looked the other way.
But on Saturday France and the European union both expressed &#8220;doubt&#8221; about the poll, which swung it for Bongo on a province, Haut-Ogooue, that gave him 95 percent of a 99.9 percent turnout.
Bongo pledged to address some of the issues that have fuelled anger in the country of 1.8 million, like youth unemployment and over-reliance on dwindling oil revenues.
&#8220;We want to move from just enjoying the profits of oil to an economy where we can also start producing,&#8221; Bongo told Reuters. &#8220;Manufacturing is very important &#8230; We are also inviting the national and international business community to invest. They want to find a country that is in peace and stable.&#8221;

"Business as usual," Gabon leader Ali Bongo says

Gabon&#8217;s Constitutional Court began hearing arguments on Thursday in advance of its ruling on an election that opposition leader Jean Ping said was rigged to give President Ali Bongo victory.
The court&#8217;s nine judges are expected to rule by Friday on Ping&#8217;s complaint and could announce a recount or final results.
The election has drawn unwelcome scrutiny on Bongo, whose family has ruled the oil-producing country for almost half a century. France has called for a recount and the European Union questioned the integrity of the results.
Six lawyers for Bongo and two for Ping sat at tables about five metres apart in the glass-domed courtroom. All wore black robes and white cravat-style collars. At least 12 armed security personnel stood guard outside the courthouse.
The top document on a pile stacked on the opposition&#8217;s legal table was titled Province Haut-Ogooue, a stronghold region for Bongo who won 95 percent of the vote there on a 99.9 percent turnout, according to electoral commission results.
Ping says that region&#8217;s result was rigged, which explains the president&#8217;s victory by less than 6,000 votes. At least six people died in clashes after the result of the Aug. 27 election was announced.
Bongo became president in 2009 on the death of his father, who ruled for 42 years. Ping says he has no faith in the court because of its ties to the president.﻿

Gabon constitutional court starts hearing on disputed election

Government officials in Gabon warned opposition leader Jean Ping on Wednesday that he risked arrest if unrest resumes when the Constitutional Court rules on his challenge to last month&#8217;s presidential election outcome.
The central African government said six people died in riots that erupted this month when results from the Aug. 27 vote handed victory to incumbent President Ali Bongo by less than 6,000 votes, extending his family&#8217;s half-century grip on power.
Ping, a former African Union commission chief, said as many as 100 people were killed in the violence and he filed a request for a recount, alleging fraud in one of Bongo&#8217;s strongholds.
&#8220;Mr. Ping said clearly that if the constitutional court did not declare him winner that there will be disorder. If he crosses the line, he will be arrested,&#8221; government spokesman Alain-Claude Bilie By Nze told a news conference.
The Constitutional Court has until Friday to decide on Ping&#8217;s complaint but authorities are already stepping up security in the capital Libreville, epicentre of the violence.
Soldiers and police were visible on city streets on Wednesday, taking up positions at major crossroads.
&#8220;Today we hear of more calls for disorder by certain compatriots. We know who they are. We know where they are. We are not going to let them agitate,&#8221; Interior Minister Pacome Moubelet Boubeya said at the same news conference.
The petition alleges irregularities in Haut-Ogooue province, where Bongo won 95 percent on a turnout of 99.9 percent. A European Union observer mission also noted anomalies in the province&#8217;s results.
Ping&#8217;s spokesman, Jean Gaspard, told reporters on Wednesday that results in his campaign&#8217;s possession indeed showed that Bongo had won the province, but by a smaller margin of 89.17 percent with turnout of 81.67 percent.
Gaspard said that on a national level, those figures made Ping the poll&#8217;s winner with 51.17 percent of the vote, ahead of 46.71 percent for Bongo. &#8220;In principal, these are the results that must be proclaimed by the Constitutional Court.&#8221;
Bongo&#8217;s allies submitted evidence to the court rejecting Ping&#8217;s allegations and countering that the opposition leader had himself orchestrated vote fraud.
Ping is a lifelong insider to Gabonese politics. He was a close ally of Omar Bongo and has two children with the late president&#8217;s daughter, Pascaline.
During more than four decades in power, Omar Bongo cultivated close relations with a string of French presidents. However, Ali Bongo&#8217;s ties with Gabon&#8217;s former colonial masterhave been more strained.
 
(Additional reporting by Gerauds Wilfried Obangome and Emma Farge in Dakar; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Louise Ireland)
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© Thomson Reuters 2016 All rights reserved﻿

Gabon warns Jean Ping: If he causes unrest, he will be arrested.

Gabon&#8217;s re-elected President Ali Bongo shrugged off international calls for a recount of last week&#8217;s disputed vote, saying it was a matter for the constitutional court to decide.
The European Union has questioned the validity of election which the opposition has dismissed as a sham. France, the former colonial ruler of the central African oil producer, has said a recount would be wise
Asked in a pre-recorded interview broadcast on Wednesday whether he would permit a recount, Bongo told France&#8217;s RTL radio: &#8220;What people should be asking me to do is apply the law. I cannot violate the law. As far as a recount is concerned &#8230; that&#8217;s done at the level of the Constitutional Court.&#8221;
Opposition leader Jean Ping, who has said the election was stolen, called on Tuesday for help from the international community. He told Reuters: &#8220;Everybody knows the result and everybody knows that Bongo is doing everything not to accept it.&#8221;
Ping has said he has no faith in the constitutional court because it was tied to the Bongo family and that he wants a recount done under international supervision before any appeal to that court.
Asked about the possibility of forming a unity government with the opposition, Bongo said it was premature to discuss such a move.
&#8220;I will be the president for all Gabonese, I will work with all my compatriots who want to join me in working for the development of the country. But it is difficult to work with those who asked the Gabonese people to go into the streets and loot.&#8221;﻿

Gabon's Pres. Bongo shrugs off international calls for vote recount

The African Union plans to send a delegation to help resolve a crisis in Gabon where two opposing candidates claim to have won a presidential election last month, a spokesman for the pan-African body said on Tuesday.
&#8220;It is an urgent matter and I expect the high-level delegation to be dispatched very soon,&#8221; said Jacob Enoh Eben, adding that Chad&#8217;s President Idriss Deby, who currently holds the AU chair, was likely to lead the talks.
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African Union plans to mediate in Gabon election crisis

LIBREVILLE  &#8211; Gabon&#8217;s opposition leader Jean Ping called on Monday for a general strike to protest against what he said was a fraudulent re-election victory by President Ali Bongo.
Ping, who says he is now the leader of the Central African nation, said in a statement on his website that his fight was not over, even as calm returned to the capital following deadly riots last week.
&#8220;I ask you from today onward not to use violence but to resist by blocking the country&#8217;s economy,&#8221; he said in the statement, addressing all Gabonese. President Ali Bongo has dismissed allegations of vote fixing.
 
(Reporting by Gerauds Wilfried Obangome; Writing by Nellie Peyton; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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© Thomson Reuters 2016 All rights reserved﻿

Gabon opposition chief calls for general strike

Soldiers were deployed in the Gabonese capital Libreville on Friday as residents ventured back onto the streets, buying provisions and surveying damage after two days of riots sparked by a disputed presidential election.
Clashes across the city led to three deaths and up to 1,100 arrests by Thursday afternoon, the interior minister said, as supporters of defeated challenger Jean Ping &#8211; who claimed the ballot was fixed &#8211; faced off against state security forces.
Some shops in the city centre were open on Friday but there was little traffic, and locals expressed concern that the violence &#8211; which former colonial power France and others in the West had condemned while calling for greater transparency over the election result &#8211; might return.
&#8220;It&#8217;s a shame that after such a peaceful election we&#8217;ve arrived at such a deplorable situation,&#8221; said Paul Ndzembi, 57, part of a small group discussing events on a street in the city centre. &#8220;We&#8217;re afraid the situation will get worse.&#8221;
The country&#8217;s electoral commission declared President Ali Bongo the election winner by a narrow margin on Wednesday, extending his family&#8217;s near half-century rule over the oil-producing Central African country for another seven years.
Ping, a former close ally of the president who fathered two children with his daughter, called on Bongo to step down on Wednesday.
Demonstrators set fire to parliament hours after the election result was announced. The interior of the assembly hall was completely gutted, with seats and tables reduced to cinders, according to a Reuters witness.
In the rioting that followed, television stations, supermarkets, shops, and homes were looted in Libreville. Violence also erupted in other cities and provinces, the interior minister said.
 
&#8216;INTERVENTION DISRESPECTFUL&#8217;
France, the United States and the European Union on Wednesday urged the authorities to release polling station results for greater transparency, a request Bongo&#8217;s spokesman rejected on Thursday.
Allies of Bongo, whose family has cultivated close relations with a succession of French presidents, expressed anger on Sunday over a French Socialist Party statement declaring that early results showed Ping to be the winner.
They accused France of failing to respect the sovereignty of a country where 14,000 French citizens live, and which hosts a French military base with 450 troops.
Interviewed on Friday on France 2 television, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said: &#8220;We are Africa&#8217;s partners but we do not want in any case to intervene in countries&#8217; internal affairs. That would be disrespectful of Africans, they don&#8217;t ask for it&#8221;.
France acted only when countries requested Paris&#8217; help, he added.
Soldiers, deployed throughout Libreville on Thursday to reinforce the police, were positioned at crossroads on Friday and the elite republican guard ensured security near the presidential palace. Riot police were also visible.
President Bongo visited the parliament building late on Thursday and also met with two police officers being treated for gunshot wounds at a hospital.
Bongo won 49.80 percent of votes in Saturday&#8217;s election against 48.23 percent for Ping, according to the official results.﻿

Soldiers deployed in Gabon after residents take to streets

Gabon opposition leader Jean Ping said on Thursday that two people were killed and others were wounded as a second day of violent protests against the re-election of President Ali Bongo engulfed the capital, Libreville.
Ping said he won the poll and rejected results announced on Wednesday that handed the incumbent a slim victory, extending the Bongo family&#8217;s half-century grip on power in the oil producer for another seven years.
Riots were raging in at least nine Libreville neighbourhoods Thursday morning, two witnesses and a police source said, a day after angry demonstrators set the parliament building on fire.
One witness reported hearing gunfire and blasts in the Nkembo neighbourhood, near the city centre, while another saw protesters loot shops, turn over rubbish bins to block streets and smash cars in the Avea neighbourhood.
&#8220;This is just a consequence of the current situation. This is because of the victory of Bongo against Jean Ping,&#8221; said witness Alex Mbadinga, 32.
Ping, who said the two deaths occurred when presidential guard soldiers and police attacked his party&#8217;s headquarters overnight, called for international assistance to protect the population against what he described as &#8220;a rogue state&#8221;.
&#8220;Everybody knows that I won the election,&#8221; Ping told Reuters, adding the electoral commission&#8217;s figures were fraudulent. &#8220;The (Bongo) family are repeating the same scenario for almost half a century. The opposition can win the elections but they have never had access to power.&#8221;
Gabonese authorities were not immediately available to comment on Ping&#8217;s accusation that his headquarters had been targeted.
France, the United States and the European Union urged calm late on Wednesday and called on authorities to release the results of individual polling stations for greater transparency, while the United Nations also urged restraint.
&#8220;Within the framework of a political process, there&#8217;s no room for violence,&#8221; Jean-Marc Ayrault, foreign minister of Gabon&#8217;s former colonial ruler France, said on Thursday. &#8220;I&#8217;m calling, therefore, all parties to exercise the utmost restraint to avoid additional victims.&#8221;
INTERNET CUT
&#8220;Certain individuals clearly with bad intentions continue to demonstrate in Libreville but we are putting everything in place to bring back calm and secure people and property,&#8221; said a senior police source who declined to be named.
Libreville residents said that the internet was cut on Thursday. Social networks, including Twitter and Facebook, stopped functioning overnight. Earlier in the week, customs officials seized satellite telephones they said had been imported illegally.
Bongo won 49.80 percent of votes in Saturday&#8217;s election against 48.23 percent for Ping, according results read by Interior Minister Pacome Moubelet Boubeya on Wednesday, after the announcement was delayed by one day.
&#8220;This victory by such a tight score obliges &#8230; each of us to respect the verdict of the ballot box,&#8221; Bongo said in the text of a speech distributed to reporters late on Wednesday.
Bongo was elected in 2009 upon the death of his father Omar Bongo, who ruled Gabon for 42 years. He benefited from an engrained patronage system lubricated by oil money ahead of the vote.
But economic headwinds caused by falling oil prices and crude production have led to budget cuts in one of Africa&#8217;s wealthiest nations, providing fuel for opposition charges that Gabon&#8217;s 1.8 million citizens have suffered under his rule.
Ping, a political insider who has served as foreign minister and African Union Commission chairman, was a close ally of the late president and fathered two children with his daughter.
Ping said he was not calling on his supporters to protest because they were already under so much pressure from authorities. He said he feared arms would be planted in his party headquarters and he could be arrested as a result.
Despite a bitter campaign, election day was peaceful. However supporters of both Bongo and Ping swapped accusations of fraud.
An EU observer mission criticised a &#8220;lack of transparency&#8221; among institutions running the election and said Bongo had benefited from preferential access to money and the media.
 
(Additional reporting by Matthew Mpoke Bigg in Accra, Tim Cocks in Dakar and Joe Bavier in Abidjan; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Joe Bavier; Editing by Alison Williams)﻿

Gabon

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Gabon president Bongo sworn in after disputed poll

"Business as usual," Gabon leader Ali Bongo says

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Gabon warns Jean Ping: If he causes unrest, he will be arrested.

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Gabon

Central African economies contracted this year, but by less than before -IMF

Gabon aims to diversify economy with new Owendo Port

Owendo Port to offer opportunities for economic diversification

Owendo Port project completed in 18 months

UN identifies 41 Burundi & Gabon troops accused of abuse

Gabon names new government, no opposition members of Ping

Gabon leader's legitimacy rejected by opposition

France will not endorse Gabon's Bongo, leaving him out in the cold

Gabon president Bongo sworn in after disputed poll

"Business as usual," Gabon leader Ali Bongo says

Gabon constitutional court starts hearing on disputed election

Gabon warns Jean Ping: If he causes unrest, he will be arrested.

Gabon's Pres. Bongo shrugs off international calls for vote recount

African Union plans to mediate in Gabon election crisis

Gabon opposition chief calls for general strike

Soldiers deployed in Gabon after residents take to streets

Gabon opposition leader says two killed, riots engulf capital

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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