LIBREVILLE (Reuters) – Gabon’s President Ali Bongo on Monday appointed the country’s first female Prime Minister Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda to the role of vice-president and named a new PM to replace her, his secretary general said.
Ossouka Raponda, 59, was appointed in July 2020 after her predecessor stepped down. She was defence minister before that.
She had to navigate a delicate political scene as prime minister after a coup attempt in 2019 while Bongo was on prolonged medical leave following a stroke.
Former minister Alain-Claude Bilie By Nze will replace Ossouka Raponda and form a new government, Bongo’s secretary general Jean-Yves Teale said in a video statement posted on the presidency’s Twitter account.
Ossouka Raponda was named budget minister in 2012 before being elected mayor of the capital Libreville in 2014, becoming the first woman to hold that position since 1956.
(Reporting by Gerauds Obangome; Writing by Sofia Christensen; Editing by Edward McAllister and Grant McCool)
