Missing President Threatens Power Struggle in Oil-Rich Gabon
- President Ali Bongo hasn’t appeared in public since Oct. 24
- Failure to follow constitutional process risks unrest: analyst
Ali Bongo
Photographer: Michael Nagle/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Three weeks after Gabon President Ali Bongo was rushed to a hospital in Saudi Arabia and stopped appearing in public, his absence risks creating a power vacuum in the central African nation that his family has ruled for half a century.
Bongo, 59, is being treated for an unspecified illness in Riyadh since attending an economic summit on Oct. 24. Two weeks after saying he was suffering from severe fatigue, the government announced on Sunday that Bongo is recovering from a “bleeding,” without giving further details. The government didn’t comment on a Reuters report that he had a stroke.