Omar Bongo

Omar Bongo Ondimba (born Albert-Bernard Bongo; 30 December 1935 – 8 June 2009) was the second president of Gabon, serving from 1967 until his death in 2009. A member of the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), Bongo was promoted to key positions as a young official under Gabon's first president Léon M'ba in the 1960s, before being made the second vice president in 1966, replacing Paul-Marie Yembit. In 1967, after M'ba's death, he became the country's president. Bongo headed the single-party regime of the PDG until 1990, when, faced with public pressure, he was forced to introduce multi-party politics into Gabon. His political survival despite intense opposition to his rule in the early 1990s seemed to stem once again from consolidating power by bringing most of the major opposition leaders at the time to his side. The 1993 presidential election was extremely controversial but ended with his re-election then and the subsequent elections of 1998 and 2005. His respective parliamentary majorities increased and the opposition became more subdued with each succeeding election. After Cuban leader Fidel Castro stepped down in February 2008, Bongo became the world's longest-ruling non-royal leader, retaining this distinction until his death the following year. Bongo's government received strong diplomatic, financial and military backing from its former coloniser France (tied to the presence of French oil giant Elf and subsequently Total in the country). He was criticised for in effect having worked for himself, his family and local elites and not for Gabon and its people despite an oil-led GDP per capita growth to one of the highest levels in Africa. Press freedom was curtailed by the regime, which typically banned news outlets critical of Bongo or his entourage. He is also suspected to have been involved in assassinations including those of Ndouna Dépénaud, Joseph Rendjambé and (in...