GABON: President Bongo's remains leave Barcelona

Africa - Gabon - Omar Bongo - Spain
President Bongo's remains arrive in Libreville
Thursday 11 June 2009
Gabon's late president Omar Bongo's remains have arrived in Gabon's capital Libreville, where he is to be buried. French President Nicolas Sarkozy will attend the funeral.

AFP - The remains of Gabon's late president Omar Bongo Ondimba left Barcelona on Thursday on a Spanish air force flight for burial in his homeland, plunged into a month of mourning. His coffin -- draped with a cloth in Gabonese colours -- was seen being loaded into the aircraft during a brief military ceremony attended by Gabonese and Spanish officials. The flight took off soon after 11:20 am (0920 GMT), headed for Libreville, three days after Bongo's death at a Barcelona clinic was announced. He was 73 and Africa's longest-serving leader.

» Gabon's President Bongo dead at 73
» RFI report: Long-time leader Bongo confirmed dead

Gabon's government, headed by Senate speaker Rose Francine Rogombe who was sworn in as interim president on Wednesday, has declared a mourning period of 30 days. The daily L'Union newspaper said in a government statement Thursday that the day would be a public holiday, like June 16, when dignitaries from many nations are expected to attend Bongo's funeral.

The Republic of Congo's President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who was Bongo's father-in-law, arrived in Libreville on Wednesday, while an eight-day period of mourning was announced from June 11 to June 18 in his own country. "Across the whole national territory, flags will be flown at half-mast during all these days. Any unauthorised public meetings are banned," said an official announcement read Thursday on Congo's state radio. Sassou Nguesso told Radio France Internationale that he was undergoing a "particularly trying period" after the deaths within three months of Bongo and of his daughter, Bongo's wife Edith Lucie, who died in Morocco on March 14 after a long illness. Many Libreville shops and offices were closed on Thursday and the usually heavy traffic was thin. The capital's mayor announced that markets will be shut on Friday, a day when the people pay their tribute to the man who ruled them for 41