Gabon's president Bongo dead: official

Gabon's President Omar Bongo Ondimba, Africa's longest serving leader, died Monday afternoon in a clinic in Barcelona aged 73, the country's prime minister said in a written statement. "At 2:30 pm, the medical team informed me, as well as the officials and members of the family present, that the president of the republic, head of state Omar Bongo Ondimba had just passed away following a heart attack," said the statement from Jean Eyeghe Ndong.
The statement was handed to journalists at the Quiron clinic in Barcelona, where Bongo, who has ruled Gabon for 41 years, was admitted early last month. Ndong said that he had visited Bongo at the clinic at around 11:00 am on Monday. "I noted at that time that the head of state whom I visited in the intensive care unit was alive and well," he said.
"But we knew that the health of the president had become a source of concern in recent days." He said the country would observe a 30-day period of mourning from Monday, in which all flags would be flown at half-mast. Funeral arrangements would be announced later.
He called on the Gabonese people to "remain united and stand together in contemplation and dignity." Gabon's government had previously insisted Bongo was undergoing a medical check-up at the clinic, but several sources said he was being treated for intestinal cancer, which they said had reached an advanced stage.
The president announced on May 6 that he was temporarily suspending his duties in order to rest and mourn the death in March of his wife, Edith Lucie Bongo Ondimba, 45, the daughter of Congo President Denis Sassou-Nguesso.
Bongo came to power with French support and ruled over a state that stuffed its coffers with profits from its abundant oil wealth, while most of the 1.5 million population remained poor. In recent months, he has been embroiled in a row with Paris over a French inquiry into luxury properties he had bought in France and claims by anti-corruption activists they were acquired with embezzled state funds. Ndong was earlier forced to deny reports that the president had passed away on Sunday.