TLDR Gabonese mining company Comilog, a subsidiary of France’s Eramet, reported consolidated revenue of 718.1 billion CFA francs ($1.18 billion) in 2024 Operating profit fell 10% year-on-year to 173.7 billion CFA francs ($284.7 million), while net profit stood at 38.7 billion CFA francs ($63.5 million) In 2025, Comilog plans to transport between 6.7 and 7.2 million tonnes, aiming to reduce FOB cash costs to $2.0-$2.2 per dmtu Gabonese mining company Comilog, a subsidiary of France’s Eramet, reported consolidated revenue of 718.1 billion CFA francs ($1.18 billion) in 2024, reflecting reduced global demand and disruptions in supply. Operating profit fell 10% year-on-year to 173.7 billion CFA francs ($284.7 million), while net profit stood at 38.7 billion CFA francs ($63.5 million). High-grade manganese ore production dropped 8% to 6.8 million tonnes, with transported volumes also down 8% to 6.1 million tonnes. The company cited weak carbon steel production and global ore demand,...

Gabon’s junta chief Brice Oligui Nguema has romped his way to victory in the first presidential election since he took power in a 2023 coup, with provisional results giving him more than 90 percent of the vote. Nguema, who ended more than five decades of corruption-plagued rule by the Bongo family in August 2023, won 90.35 percent of the vote, Gabon‘s Interior Minister Hermann Immongault announced Sunday, with 90 percent of votes counted. Nguema’s main rival, Alain-Claude Bilie By Nze, obtained 3.02 percent and the six other candidates no more than 1 percent each. Turnout in Saturday’s poll was 70.4 percent, lower than the 87 percent announced shortly after polls closed. Immongault said the lower figure was due to difficulties some Gabonese citizens encountered in voting abroad. The 50-year-old general seized power in the oil-producing Central African country in an August 2023 coup against his distant cousin and then-president Ali...

Gabon stands at a political crossroads this weekend, as the nation heads to the polls for its first presidential election since the 2023 military coup – a vote that could mark a clean break from decades of dynastic rule, or entrench a familiar power under a new guise. As voters prepare to cast their votes on Saturday, the final political rallies across the country this week set the tone for what could be a turning point for the country. The transitional president and favourite to win, Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, ended his campaign a day early with a high-energy double-header of in the capital Libreville on Thursday. Buses rolled into Libreville bringing thousands of enthusiastic supporters, who thronged venues in the Owendo district and along the Boulevard Bessieux, where previous presidential heavyweights such as Ali Bongo and Jean Ping too once drew massive crowds. As Oligui Nguema pulled out all...

The Gabon military ruler, who has served as the leader of the country since the coup in 2023, won the election on Saturday with more than 90 per cent of the votes. Gabon’s military leader, Brice Nguema, who led the 2023 coup that ended Ali Bongo’s rule, has been declared the winner of the presidential election. Mr Nguema, who has led the country since the coup in 2023, won the election on Saturday with more than 90 per cent of the vote. The 50-year-old military leader had contested the election alongside seven other candidates. This includes the former Prime Minister, Alain Bilie-by-Nze, who served under the Bongo regime, and two stalwarts of the former ruling PDG party, Stéphane Iloko and Alain Boungouères. According to the BBC, prominent opposition figures who might have mounted a strong challenge were barred from contesting in the Saturday presidential election. Mr Billie-by-Nze was the major...

Addis Ababa, — Brice Oligui Nguema, the leader of Gabon’s transitional government and the military figure who led the 2023 coup, has claimed a decisive victory in the country’s presidential election, securing 90.35% of the vote, according to provisional results released by the Ministry of the Interior on Sunday. The military leader, who ousted long-time ruler Ali Bongo in August 2023, cast his vote on April 12, 2025, at the Centre Urban Pilot School in Libreville, where the election took place. In the race, Oligui Nguema’s closest competitor, Alain-Claude Bilie Bie Nze, garnered just 3.02% of the vote, while the remaining six candidates failed to break the 1% mark. The election, which saw a 70.4% voter turnout, marks a significant step in Gabon’s return to constitutional rule after the military-led transition. After his coup against President Bongo, Oligui Nguema had initially pledged to hand power back to civilian authorities. However,...

In Gabon, the electoral campaign is in full swing ahead of the presidential election on 12 April, with eight candidates in the running. Who are these seven men and one woman? Gabon will elect a new president on Saturday, after 19 months of interim rule by military leaders who seized power in a coup. Gabon is one of the richest countries in Africa in terms of per-capita GDP, thanks to oil, wood and manganese (used in steelmaking and batteries) and its small population of just 2.3 million. But as global crude prices have fallen, the contribution of Gabonese oil production to GDP has fallen and the central African country’s debt rose to 73.3 percent of GDP last year. It’s projected to reach 80 percent this year. In 50 years, the average income per capita has halved and more than a third of the population lives on less than $2.15 a...

The upcoming elections in Gabon will test whether the country is on a firm democratic footing, or whether it will be business as usual with military men in control, but under the guise of democratic choice. Brice Oligui Nguema, now the transitional president, staged a coup against Ali Bongo in August 2023. Oligui Nguema and his military junta promised to return power to civilians at the end of a two year military transition. But Oligui Nguema wrong-footed opposition figures on two fronts. First, he announced the elections six months earlier than the transition arrangement allowed for. And second, in early March he resigned his office as general and presented himself as a civilian and therefore eligible to run as a candidate. He is contesting against seven other candidates, one of whom is the former prime minister of Gabon, Claude Bilie-By-Nze. As a political scientist specialising in African politics, I have...