Gabon’s leader Bongo to face 18 candidates in presidential election

Gabon President Ali Bongo Ondimba delivers a speech at the Nzang Ayong stadium in Libreville on July 10, 2023. (AFP)
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Updated 24 July 2023
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Gabon’s leader Bongo to face 18 candidates in presidential election

LIBREVILLE: Gabon’s leader Ali Bongo Ondimba, who is favorite for a third term, will face 18 other candidates in next month’s presidential election, authorities announced on Monday.

Bongo’s family has ruled the West African state for 55 years.

The 64-year-old, who took over from his father Omar Bongo Ondimba in 2009, officially announced in July that he would run again for president.

His leading rivals for the top job include Alexandre Barro Chambrier of the opposition Rally for the Fatherland and Modernity or RPM party and the National Union’s head Paulette Missambo.

The opposition failed to agree on a single candidate to challenge Bongo in the Aug. 26 poll, but both candidates are former ministers and part of the Alternance 2023 coalition.

In April, the Gabonese parliament voted to amend the constitution and reduce the president’s term from seven to five years.

Sections of the opposition criticized the changes, in particular the end of two rounds of voting, as a means of “facilitating the reelection” of Bongo.

With less than five weeks to go to the elections, Alternance 2023 has denounced modifications to the electoral code.

These notably include a move to allow a maximum of only three observers at each polling station — one for the ruling majority, one for the opposition and one for all independent candidates.

Previously every candidate could appoint an observer for every polling station.

“The claim of parity between the majority and the opposition is a trick. It favors supposed opposition parties without any candidates or very few,” Francois Ndong Obiang, head of the Reagir party, told a meeting of Alternance member parties on Friday.

Prime Minister Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze had last week urged the opposition not to “throw oil on the fire.”

“In order to hold a calm election, those involved must be careful not to throw oil on the fire,” he posted on Twitter.

Bongo’s powerful Gabonese Democratic Party or PDG holds strong majorities in both houses of parliament.

The president was narrowly re-elected in 2016, with just 5,500 more votes than rival Jean Ping who claimed the election had been fixed.

The announcement of the results sparked violence in the capital Libreville that left five dead, according to the government. The opposition says 30 people were shot dead by the security forces.


Trump says US will sign Ukraine minerals deal soon

Updated 4 sec ago
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Trump says US will sign Ukraine minerals deal soon

  • Trump says peace talks going ‘pretty well’
  • Ukraine minerals deal seen as repayment for US aid

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Thursday the United States will sign a minerals and natural resources deal with Ukraine shortly and that his efforts to achieve a peace deal for the country were going “pretty well” after his talks this week with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.
Trump made the comments at a White House event after signing an order to increase US production of critical minerals.
“We’re doing very well with regard to Ukraine and Russia. And one of the things we are doing is signing a deal very shortly with respect to rare earths with Ukraine.”
Trump referred to his separate discussions this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Those talks, which fell short of Trump’s aim to secure a full 30-day ceasefire, resulted in Putin agreeing to stop Russian attacks on energy infrastructure for 30 days and Zelensky saying he would also accept such a pause.
“We would love to see that (war) come to an end, and I think we’re doing pretty well in that regard,” Trump said.
“So hopefully we’d save thousands of people a week from dying. That’s what it’s all about. They’re dying so unnecessarily, and I believe we’ll get it done.”
Ukraine and the US said this month they had agreed to conclude as soon as possible a comprehensive agreement for developing Ukraine’s critical mineral resources, which Trump sees as a means to pay back the United States for its assistance to Kyiv. Efforts to seal the deal stumbled after a disastrous White House meeting between Trump and Zelensky at the end of last month.
Trump and Zelensky agreed on Wednesday to work together to end Russia’s war with Ukraine, in what the White House described as a “fantastic” one-hour phone call, their first conversation since their Oval Office shouting match that resulted in a short-term cutoff in US military aid and intelligence to Kyiv.
It was unclear if the deal has changed. An earlier version did not include the explicit security guarantees Ukraine has sought, but gave the US access to revenues from Ukraine’s natural resources.
It also envisaged the Ukrainian government contributing 50 percent of monetized amounts for state-owned natural resources to a US-Ukraine managed reconstruction investment fund.
Asked how the current version of the minerals deal differs from the earlier draft, a senior US official said it was “more detailed and comprehensive,” declining to elaborate.
Ukraine’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In Brussels on Thursday, European Union leaders said they would continue to support Ukraine, but did not immediately endorse a call by Zelensky to approve a package of at least 5 billion euros for artillery purchases.


Macron announces new Ukraine ‘coalition’ summit in Paris on March 27

Updated 7 min 35 sec ago
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Macron announces new Ukraine ‘coalition’ summit in Paris on March 27

BRUSSELS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said the leaders of a coalition of Ukraine backers would meet again in Paris next week, hoping to finalize plans to secure a potential truce in the war with Russia.

“We will hold another meeting of the coalition of the willing next Thursday in Paris in presence of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky,” Macron told reporters following an EU summit.


Trump signs order to ‘eliminate’ US Education Department

Updated 19 min 34 sec ago
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Trump signs order to ‘eliminate’ US Education Department


North Korea’s Kim oversees test of latest anti-aircraft missile system: state media

Updated 22 min 27 sec ago
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North Korea’s Kim oversees test of latest anti-aircraft missile system: state media

SEOUL: North Korea on Thursday conducted a test fire of its latest anti-aircraft missile system in a drill watched by leader Kim Jong Un, Pyongyang’s state media reported.
The launch proved the system’s “combat fast response,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, and came just over a week after South Korea began a major annual joint military drill with the United States.


M23 group seizes key town in eastern DR Congo

Updated 21 March 2025
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M23 group seizes key town in eastern DR Congo

  • Capture of Walikale leaves rebels in control of road linking 4 provinces

GOMA: Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have entered the center of the eastern Congo town of Walikale, a local activist and an M23 source said on Thursday, expanding the insurgents’ presence deep into the Congolese interior despite renewed calls for a ceasefire.

Their entry into Walikale, an area rich in minerals including tin, followed fighting on Wednesday with the Democratic Republic of Congo’s army and allied militias on the outskirts of the town.

The town’s capture would leave the rebels, who took eastern Congo’s two largest cities earlier this year, in control of a road linking four eastern Congo provinces and within 400 km of Kisangani, the country’s fourth-biggest city.

“The rebels are now visible in the city’s center,” said Fiston Misona, a civil society activist in Walikale.

“There are at least seven people wounded who are at the general hospital.”

An M23 source said the rebels were in complete control of the town.

A spokesperson for Congo’s army did not respond to requests for comment about the situation in Walikale.

The rebels’ move on Walikale, a town of about 15,000 people, came despite calls on Tuesday by Congo President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame for an immediate ceasefire after their first direct talks since M23 stepped up its offensive in January.

The conflict, rooted in the fallout from Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and competition for mineral riches, has quickly become eastern Congo’s worst conflict since a 1998-2003 war that drew in multiple neighboring countries.

Rwanda has been supporting the ethnic Tutsi-led rebels by providing arms and sending troops, according to the UN, Western governments, and independent experts.

Rwanda has denied backing M23 and says its military has been acting in self-defense against Congo’s army and a militia founded by some of the perpetrators of the genocide.