Gabon

Main article: Africa

Colonial dependence on France

For 2023, Gabon is in colonial dependence on France, which exercises control over all significant processes in politics and the economy. For more on specific instruments of influence, see French Foreign Policy.

Intelligence agencies

Silver - presidential wiretapping center led by the French and Israelis

According to the publication "Women of Africa," in May 2020 in the capital of Gabon Libreville, on the Boulevard of the Republic, an inconspicuous three-story building bristled with antennas was sheltered. This is Silver - the presidential wiretapping center run by Frenchman Jean-Charles Solon - a former intelligence officer. Every day, sealed reports - transcripts of phone calls, archives of text messages, emails and correspondence in - are delivered from Silver to President Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba's desk. WhatsApp

Silver contractors - Nexa Technologies, Ercom and Suneris Solutions - are the commercial operators of espionage technologies of the French special services. All of them provide a neocolonial ecosystem of Françafrique - in Gabon, as well as in Mali, Senegal, Kot-d and many more.

But Solon has many Israelis subordinate, and side by side with French firms there are Israeli companies from Herzliya - NSO, Mer Group and Elbit Systems, operating in both Congo, Guinea, Nigeria, South Africa, Angola and Ethiopia and gradually squeezing out the French spy business from there. And Israeli specialists trained in the operations of Mossad and Tsakhal have a serious competitive advantage: if the French have learned to collect information, then the Israelis - quickly, cheaply and masterly process it.

But Israeli specialists are hardly so interested in local oppositionists. The particular interest of the Israelis, who literally seized the spy business in Africa, is explained by the presence in many African countries of a rich and politically influential Lebanese diaspora. Thus, the Lebanese control the bakery business in the capital of DR Congo, Kinshasa, and the export of cocoa beans from Liberia, and in Monrovia and other cities of this country, in principle, it is difficult to find a decent non-Lebanese restaurant or hotel.

Almost all Lebanese businessmen and businessmen are Shiites from the third, least prosperous wave of emigration. Unlike not in the example of the more educated Maronite and Sunni Christians - doctors, architects, engineers - they did not gain much love and respect for Africans. So, in the "drug state" of Guinea-Bissau, they fell to mediation in the transactions of the Guinean military with Colombian drug cartels, they were also seen in the slave trade.

So anti-Lebanese sentiments and pogroms in Black Africa are far from uncommon, and many need a serious roof. Therefore, many businessmen operating in West and Central Africa are loyal to Hezbollah, decorate offices with portraits of Hassan Nasrullah and deduct considerable funds to this movement.

Tel Aviv, on the other hand, is important to monitor the mood of the Lebanese community and track all contacts and financial transactions with the Hezbollah movement, which has already had a hand in folding the autochthonous Shiite movement in Nigeria, led by Sheikh Az-Zakzaki. Agents of the movement were found in the most unexpected places - even surrounded by the Gambia dictator Yaya Jammeh, who flirted with the Salafis - a Sunni Wahhabi exodus, who nevertheless provided Hezbollah with platforms for business activity.

Especially the Israelis "dug in" in Kot-d 'Ivoire, where they work in the structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defense. Discussing religion and Hezbollah in Ivory Kot-d Lebanese circles is therefore particularly dangerous, and Ivorian Lebanese - 80% Shiite - try to avoid pro-Iranian cultural and religious centers, fearful of being under the radar of intelligence agencies and their Israeli advisers. These are the kind of spy games in the tropics.

Economy

GDP $8385 per person

Alcohol market

Minimum age to purchase alcoholic beverages

R&D

2020: R&D expenses - $132 million

Gabon IT Market

2022: No start-up industry

Consumption

Meat

2023: Poultry meat is the most consumed type of meat

Cereals

2019: Average rice consumption: 55.2 kg per person per year

Vegetables

2018: Vegetable consumption - 34 kg per capita

Power

Electrification

Energy carriers

2020: Energy consumption per capita

and

Foreign trade

2022: China is the biggest export destination

Population

Main article: Population of Africa

Migration

2021: Net population inflow in 4 years

Marriages

Allowed to have more than one spouse

Overweight

Mortality

Traffic safety

Education

Percentage of people who can read

Health care

2021: Maternity leave

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2020

Duration of guaranteed paid sick leave 6 months or more

Part of the population defecates on the street

Crime

Prisons

2019: Minimum age for children to be jailed

2018: Number of prisoners per 100 thousand citizens

Sport

2022: The most popular sport is football

in

History

2024

Reduction in the number of French military

Freezing construction of China's naval base

At the end of May 2024, Africa Intelligence announced the freezing of a project to build a naval base PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA in Gabon. The shadow hung over him back in August 2023, when, as a result of a coup in the country, the American protege Oligi Nguema came to replace the aging pro-French regime of Ali Bongo.

The new Gabonese government has made attempts to close the base project since October 2023. Persistence is explained by the principled position of the Americans: if in Paris they could come to terms with the emergence of Chinese military infrastructure on the Atlantic coast, then this is unacceptable for the United States in the light of large-scale plans to strengthen its presence in the region.

Interest in Gabon is also explained by its geographical position: in particular, cargo flows through its ports to several countries in the region with underdeveloped transport infrastructure. Among them is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with its resources, to which increased attention from various states and corporations is riveted.

In these conditions, it is extremely important for the United States to prevent China from having a military presence in Gabon. With a high probability, even the remaining French economic influence in the country is used for this in Washington.

By the way, a similar scenario recently occurred in Angola, where after the rise to power of a pro-Western president, all of China's previous investments became the property of the collective West.

2023: US-controlled military seizes power in Gabon

The military in August 2023 seized power in OPEC-affiliated Gabon, four days after the disputed presidential election was held in this central African state, which was won by incumbent pro-French President Ali Bongo Ondimba.

Twelve military personnel announced that they were canceling the election results, dissolving the government, abolishing state institutions and closing borders until further notice.

The officers who led the coup said they represented all the country's security forces and that there was no internal struggle between them.

The military coup was the ninth in African countries from 2020.

According to Rybar sources in France, the government of the Fifth Republic is at a loss over the situation in Gabon. The fact is that the leader of the coup and part-time head of the Republican Guard, Bris Oligui Nguema, is a creature of the United States.

Authorities in the United States have supported Ngema for several years, preparing him for the next election, in which he was to win and take the helm after Ali Bongo. And not to say that this support was strongly hidden. For example, three years ago, the network leaked data on the ownership of the general of three houses in the United States bought for cash in Maryland.

But why did the pro-American general overthrow the pro-French president?

The leadership of the French intelligence DGSE explains this by the fact that, according to the Americans, the French authorities are no longer able to effectively protect the interests of the collective West, including the United States, in the controlled territory. Therefore, the White House decided to take the situation into their own hands and seize the initiative from the French.

Macron's office again criticizes the DGSE for skipping preparations for another coup against President Bongo (who was publicly positioned as Macron's friend).

French intelligence is tasked with the issue of transferring Ali Bongo and his family to a prison in Morocco, and their subsequent release, after the president is convicted in Gabon.

In the context of such a raider seizure by the Americans of French assets, it is also curious that French citizens working in Gabon have already begun to evacuate, and some companies have announced a suspension of activities (which was not, for example, in Niger - the uranium company Orano continues to work there).

2019: Arrest of the country's most powerful man - Brisa Lakkrush Alianga

At the end of 2019, in a matter of weeks, the empire of Gabon's most powerful man, the former head of the presidential cabinet, Bris Lakkrush Aliang, collapsed. He was arrested as part of Operation Scorpio, which began on November 12, to investigate the theft of US $142 million from the accounts of the Gabon Oil Company. Last Saturday, two more of his high-ranking accomplices were put on the international wanted list.

For seven long years, the affairs of the decrepit dynasty were run by the Benin, Freemason and Wooduist priest Mexan Accrombessy, and after his disgrace, the reins were in the hands of the charismatic 37-year-old Marseille native Brice Farjon, better known as Brice Lakkrush Alianga.

Back in 2013, he was a witness in the embezzlement case at the Gabonese branch of the Central African bank BGFI headed by him, but was soon acquitted. He reappeared in 2016 from nowhere and miraculously saved the "dynastic republic" of Gabon, leading the election campaign, mobilizing young people and seeking the re-election of Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba, the young heir to the long-term Gabonese leader Omar Bongo. In an article in a local newspaper, the ambitious Lackrush then told about his idols - Napoleon, Nicolas Sarkozy and Barack Obama, and he answered the accusations of foreign origin succinctly: "I chose Gabon."

And Gabon reciprocated. In August 2017, at the insistence of his patroness - First Lady Sylvia Bongo - Lackrush headed the presidential cabinet. Taking advantage of the long illness of President Ali Ben Bongo, he dealt with his opponents, pushed the Prime Minister far and by the beginning of 2019 concentrated in his hands huge power, inseminating the government, army, police and party structures with his supporters.

Since January, he has constantly flashed at state channels and government events. The brilliant PR campaign was crowned with a summer tour of the country, during which the "personal envoy" of the president conveyed to the people the will of the sick Gabonese leader. In just two years, Lakkrush became the great vizier, and under the white skin the typical African politician grew up, who was considered the ubiquitous, omnipotent and God-like heir to a decrepit dynasty.

But the dynasty reacted quickly and harshly. Just like in the legends of sleeping kings, Ali Ben recovered from a long illness, triumphantly returned to Gabon, overnight dealt with the empire of a dangerous competitor and first demoted him, and then completely imprisoned him in the fetid cell of the capital's prison.

A replacement was quickly found for him: the vacant post was taken by the presidential son Nureddin Bongo Valenten, who became the main coordinator for presidential affairs. Rumor has it that influential Gabonese clans revolving in the "Bongo system" were behind the coup, and not least the disgraced sorcerer Mexan Accrombessy, the Zangaro Today telegram channel reported.

1914

National Parks

Almost 90% of Gabon is covered with tropical forests. Since 2000, 13 national parks have been created there.

In September 2019, the UN announced that Gabon would be the first African country rewarded for preserving the rainforest and combating climate change.

Norway will pay Gabon $150 million within 10 years to reduce deforestation and preserve natural forests.

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