President Bongo is Not Dead, According to Gabon Prime Minister

Gabon is reporting that death notices of its president were premature. According to the government, President Omar Bongo is alive at a hospital in Spain.

On Sunday French media reported that Bongo had died. The government in Gabon is saying that they will complain to France over those press reports. MSNBC reports: "I have made a statement not only to reassure the Gabonese people but to condemn this tendency in the French press, which only wants to sow doubt in the spirit of the Gabonese for undesirable ends," Prime Minister Jean Ndong said.

Gabon has been at the Barcelona clinic since May. The official reasoning was that he went there to rest after the death of his wife. There have been reports though that the Gabon president is suffering from cancer. The residents of Gabon are not so sure that the government is telling the truth. "They should show us images of the president on his hospital bed," said a Libreville resident who gave his name as Georges.

"Even in closed countries like Cuba they show images of Fidel Castro in hospital," he said. Bongo is one of three African leaders that is being investigated by the French for embezzling public funds. Bongo has denied that he has been anything wrong. In February his French bank accounts were frozen.