Ossouka Raponda named Gabon’s first woman prime minister

AFP | Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda, was on Thursday named prime minister of Gabon – she is the country’s first woman prime minister.

The 56-year-old Ossouka Raponda has been promoted from the defence ministry and takes over from Julien Nkoghe Bekale, who was appointed premier in January 2019.

In a statement, the president’s office said her mission will include “ensuring Gabon’s economic relaunch and necessary social support in the light of the world crisis linked to COVID-19”.

Heavily dependent on income from oil, the central African state has been badly hit by the slump in the price of crude as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on trade.

Oussouka Raponda is an economist by training who graduated from the Gabonese Institute of Economy and Finance, specializing in public finance.

She became budget minister in 2012 and then the first female mayor of the capital Libreville in 2014, as a candidate for Bongo’s Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG).

Her new appointment comes at a time when opposition and civil society leaders are once more openly questioning Bongo’s fitness to govern after he suffered a stroke in October 2018.

The president reappeared in the media on Monday after several weeks of absence.