Gabon - November 2025
Former first lady, son and their associates convicted of corruption
On 12 November, a criminal court sentenced Sylvia Bongo Ondimba and Noureddin Bongo-Valentin, the wife and son of ousted president Ali Bongo Ondimba, to 20 years in prison for several corruption-related offences committed during his rule. They were also fined and ordered to pay XAF 1.2 trillion (USD 2.1 billion) in damages. According to the prosecution, the pair, who live in London and were tried in absentia, exploited Ali Bongo Ondimba’s poor health to run Gabon for their profit, embezzling an estimated XAF 4.9 billion (nearly USD 8.7 million) of public funds. Both denied the charges. Their two-day trial was immediately followed by the trial of ten political and business associates alleged to have enabled their embezzlement, nine of whom were convicted of corruption-related offences and sentenced to prison. These associates were also fined and required to pay billions of XAF in damages. Ali Bongo Ondimba is not being prosecuted due to his immunity as a former head of state.
Sources: Jeune Afrique (1), Jeune Afrique (2), L'Union, Agence France Presse
President’s party wins first Senate elections since coup
President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema’s party, the Democratic Union of Builders (Union démocratique des bâtisseurs, UDB), won Gabon’s indirect Senate elections held on 8 (first round) and 29 November (second round), the first since the 2023 military coup. The Constitutional Court declared the results for 68 of the 70 Senate seats on 2 December. Of these, UDB won 46 (67.6 per cent), followed by the former governing party, the Gabonese Democratic Party (Parti démocratique gabonais, PDG), which won five (7.4 per cent). Both parties also won additional, shared seats through various inter-party electoral alliances. Twenty of the 94 candidates (21.3 per cent) were women, short of the 30 per cent candidate quota imposed by the electoral code. Women secured 17 (25 per cent) of the 68 confirmed seats. The result consolidates the UDB’s dominant position in Gabon’s parliament, following the National Assembly elections in September and October in which it won more than 70 per cent of the seats. The senators were elected by an electoral college of local councillors.
Sources: L'Union, Agence de Presse Africaine, Ministère de l’Intérieur, de la Sécurité et de la Décentralisation (1), Ministère de l’Intérieur, de la Sécurité et de la Décentralisation (2), Inter-Parliamentary Union, International IDEA
