Shaky Gabon’s Bongo opens regional summit

Fourteen months after suffering a stroke, Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba has opened the central African regional bloc’s extraordinary summit in Libreville.

Bongo, 60, is the current chair of the 11-nation Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), a 36-year-old organization meant to forge a common market among its member states.

Bongo spoke without notable difficulty on Wednesday but paused for a few seconds between each sentence, an AFP reporter said.

The extraordinary summit aims at beefing up ECCAS’ secretariat to create a more powerful commission, similar to that of the African Union or European Union.

Four ECCAS heads of state were present at the summit, namely Presidents Idriss Deby of Chad, Faustin-Archange Touadera of the Central African Republic, Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Evaristo Carvalho of Sao Tome and Principe.

Bongo, who has ruled the oil-rich equatorial country for 10 years, had a stroke in October 2018 while on a visit to Saudi Arabia. He later on spent about two months in Morocco where he was hospitalized and spent some time recovering.

Although he resumed his duties in January, speculation about his capacity to rule the small, oil-rich central African country remains on top of headlines in the central African nation.

Bongo succeeded his father Omar Bongo, who became head of state in 1967 and died in June 2009.