Omar Bongo Ondimba (Le Grand Camarade)

The Marcoussis peace accord appears deadlocked but French President Jacques Chirac has one more ace up his sleeve: the Gabonese leader El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba...

Edith Nguesso-Bongo Sassou's daughter married to Gabon's President Omar Bongo is listened to by her father on security issues...

The creation in August 2003 by Severo Moto Nsa of a government-in-exile in Spain (Moto is a Fang but not a Mongomo) was matched quickly by a new exile grouping in Paris calling itself CRAMOEG (Collectif de Rassemblement d'Associations et Mouvements d'Opposition Équato-Guinéenne) under a long forgotten Paris exile Manuel Ruben Ndong also Mongomo and who is seen as friendly to France's Total (formerly TotalFinaElf) CRAMOEG is important for several reasons: firstly the involvement of France whose ally President Omar Bongo of Gabon is furious with Obiang because of a festering dispute over the two countries' oil-rich border; and secondly because CRAMOEG presents itself as an umbrella for two other better known parties the Fuerza Demócrata Republicana (FDR) and the Unión de Demócratas Independientes (UDI) of Daniel Mba Oyono...

Some are friends of President El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba (he recently added the last name) who usually keeps opponents at bay by paying them off with oil money...

None of this fazes warlord-President Denis Sassou-Nguesso still at work on schemes to enrich his family and that of his son-in-law Gabon's President Omar Bongo...

Gabon's President Omar Bongo is reported by Paris fortnightly La Lettre du Continent to have been asked by Tarrallo's lawyers to appoint their client ambassador to the United Nations Education and Scientific Organisation in Paris an expedient used by Angola's President José Eduardo dos Santos to give diplomatic immunity to his friend Pierre Falcone facing an international arrest warrant...

After some debate and the discreet intervention of Hassan's old friend President Omar Bongo of Gabon it was decided to keep open the mission...

The AFP was finally legalised in April and announced at its debut news conference that it was making contacts with like-minded parties including intriguingly the Rassemblement du Peuple Gabonais of President Omar Bongo as well as the governing Parti Démocratique Sénégalais and the Front Populaire Ivoirien of President Laurent Gbagbo...

In March after the coup Presidents Jacques Chirac of France and Omar Bongo of Gabon at first wanted to expel him from Bangui but Sassou and Déby argued strongly for recognising him as ruler especially since the people of the capital happily celebrated Patassé's overthrow...

CAR is the test for the Communauté Economique et Monétaire de l'Afrique Centrale peacekeeping operation heavily backed by Gabon's President Omar Bongo (AC Vol 43 No 24)...