Gabon in 2005

Gabon in 2005

Area: 267,667 sq km (103,347 sq mi)
Population (2005 est.): 1,384,000
Capital: Libreville
Chief of state: President Omar Bongo Ondimba
Head of government: Prime Minister Jean-François Ntoutoume-Emane

Gabon continued to benefit from skyrocketing oil prices in 2005, but its reserves were rapidly being depleted. The IMF strongly recommended that a portion of oil revenues be set aside to repay external debts and to diversify the economy in order to prepare for a future with diminishing petroleum exports.

The latest official results from the 2003 census were disputed by demographers and a government statistician, who stated that current birth and death rates would make a growth rate of 50% over a 10-year period impossible. Opposition parties accused the government of inflating the figures in order to qualify for increased international aid.

Typhoid spread to the capital by the end of January as water shortages caused by a broken pump at the Libreville filtration centre forced people to turn to untreated water supplies. On February 1 the government announced that it would build an Ebola Surveillance Centre in the eastern forest region to monitor and respond to any new outbreaks of the deadly disease.

On November 27 Pres. Omar Bongo, who had ruled Gabon since 1967, was overwhelmingly reelected. According to results released by the Interior Ministry, the 69-year-old Bongo won 79% of the votes cast to opposition leader Pierre Mamboundou’s 13%. Bongo thus secured another seven-year term in office.

Nancy Ellen Lawler