"LE GABON ENERVANT" OR "ANNOYING GABON"

Sylvia Bongo (photo : Présidence) English version Version française

English version To read the original press release in English, click here Version française Situation Générale Concernant la Criminalité et la Sécurité Libreville et Port Gentil abritent la majorité des 1,6 millions d'habitants du Gabon et sont les villes où se trouvent les citoyens les plus aisés du pays. Note de Criminalité: Elevée Menaces de criminalité La criminalité est plus courante à Libreville et Port Gentil que dans les zones rurales. La majorité des crimes contre les étrangers sont des confrontations non-violentes et le plus souvent des crimes d'opportunité, bien qu'il y ait eu quelques rapports d'étrangers ayant été volés sous la menace de machettes. Ces crimes comprennent : des agressions, des vols de biens sans surveillance, et activités de pickpockets. Les objets volés le plus souvent ont tendance à s’agir d’argent en espèce et d’appareils électroniques (téléphones cellulaires). Les vols d'objets sa...

Photo: Ruban Vert English version In a recent article probably written by the consulting firms she pays exorbitantly, Sylvia Bongo affirmed in Time Magazine that the Ruban Vert school she opened in Libreville is the symbol of her commitment to the dream of equality of opportunity for all children in Gabon. This is really a sad joke, because in reality, there is no change that a little girl or boy born into the bleakest poverty in Gabon would ever be able to attend that school that was built for the privileged, using public Gabonese money. The first thing to know is that the Ruban Vert school was built with Gabonese public money, for amounts far beyond tens of billions CFA francs. This money could have been used to upgrade the totality of public schools in the country, which would have benefitted the majority of pupils in Gabon, and not only the very few. The second thing is that the Ruban Vert school is attended mostly by children of expatriates living in Ga...

English version La Lettre du Continent says that bosses installed in Gabon are going through a bad patch at the moment, because in addition to social tensions and strikes generally observed in most sectors, the Gabonese State is struggling to honor the payment of its debts to public and private companies; This is affecting deeply the economic machine. Indeed, it appears that given the ongoing crisis in the oil sector due to the falling price of crude oil, Gabon now has accumulated significant delays in the handover of 350 million euros of VAT to several large companies such as Shell, Maurel & Prom, Addax, Total, Perenco and Comilog. Yet at the end of 2015, the Gabonese government had signed an agreement and determined the schedule for repayment of VAT, with Total, Perenco and Comilog. But this timetable has not been respected. For example, Carlos Lino Boussamba, the boss of GIM-BTP, a company that would operate in the Haut-Ogooué and Ogooué-Ivindo, is still expe...

English Version Africa Energy tells us that the coffers being emptied, Ali Bongo has launched an operation of bottom barrels scraping, looking for subterfuges through which the oil companies account for the barrels produced. Ali Bongo needs fresh cash for the presidential election, he then is accelerating things. It should be noted that about a year ago, in the course of the year 2015, 7 oil operators exploiting Gabon's oil were audited by the Gabonese government, on their method of counting barrels of oil produced. These operators are: Total, Shell, Perenco, CNR, Vaalco, Addax Petroleum and Maurel & Prom. These companies went in turn to appear in front of the oil ministry services. According to Africa Energy, the services of the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) of the Ministry of Petroleum, told these companies of differences in estimates in the calculation formulas, which could cause a lower assessment of the quantities of barrels produced by thes...

English Version A suspicious press at the service of the Bongo regime has undertaken to publish what appears to us clearly to be the results of a fake opinion poll making Ali Bongo the winner of the next presidential election with 56% of votes. Dear readers, the method is known, they invent a fake opinion poll attributed to a prestigious survey agency, and they have it published in their press. But do not believe a word of it; it's all hype! First, we consulted the website of the Gallup group, and all surveys conducted by that agency are mentioned in it and none of them refers to the infamous survey giving Ali Bongo as the winner in Gabon. On the Contrary, Gallup has published a survey on the living standards of countries around the world and Gabon gets abysmal results. 40% of the Gabonese population does not feel safe in the country. 70% of the Gabonese population is unable to feed itself or to find decent housing. 28% of the Gabon...

The Stock Exchange of Central Africa (BVMAC) La Bourse des Valeurs Mobilières de l’Afrique Centrale (BVMAC) (Photo : Xinhua) English version The Gabonese State is desperately seeking liquidity and must borrow at often prohibitive rates and reimbursement mechanisms, to meet its financial obligations. Thus the Gabonese Government has just announced the launch next week of a bond transaction with the objective of mobilizing 98 billion CFA francs, with an interest rate of reimbursement 6.5% net per annum, spanning 5 years, from 2016 to 2021. But dear readers, this new loan, the third consecutive one, deserves to be carefully analyzed, because as the wise man says, the devil is in the details. First, why a net annual repayment rate so high of 6.5%? Simply as explained to us by the rating agencies, because the weight of Gabon's debt on its GDP continues to increase and will exceed in 2016 the threshold of 50%. Thereby discrediting the country and ensuring th...

English version Cette vidéo aurait pu être réalisée aujourd’hui! Tout le monde fait du sur-place, même l’opposition. Version française This video could have been made today! Everybody is stuck in place, even the opposition.

L'avocate derrière l'héritage d'Ali Bongo - Le Supplément du 22/05

English version What Lets Gabon's Government Go Unchecked 20 May 2016 Summary Worrying signs are beginning to emerge from Gabon as the country moves closer to its presidential election in August. Like many of its peers, the Central African oil producer has been hit hard by the slump in global energy prices, and the resulting strain on the Gabonese budget is starting to take a political toll. With less money to secure support and more rivals to contend with, the Gabonese Democratic Party may have trouble protecting its rule and the system that has kept it in power for over half a century. Analysis Gabon's economy is in bad shape. The effect of declining oil reserves over the past two decades has been compounded by the more recent drop in energy prices. Because hydrocarbons account for more than 50 percent of Gabon's gross domestic product, and the sale of hydrocarbons accounts for 80 percent of its export revenue, the country is vulnerab...