By Marco Trujillo/Linel Kwatsi
BARCELONA/LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - Gabon's President Omar Bongo is alive and well in a hospital in Spain, Gabonese Prime Minister Jean Eyeghe Ndong said on Monday, after French media reported Africa's longest-serving leader had died.
Reports Bongo was ill have raised questions over the future leadership of the nation, which has maintained tight relations with former colonial ruler France and attracted investors with a Eurobond as well as its long-established oil industry.
"He is alive and well. The family has been visiting him this morning," Ndong told a news conference at the Quiron hospital in Barcelona.
French media on Sunday said Bongo had died after 41 years in power in the central African country. But Gabon's government said on Monday that it would officially complain to France over the press 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," Ndong said.
Gabon's deputy foreign minister handed the official complaint to France's ambassador in Libreville on Monday.
The oceanside capital was quiet, despite the confusion. But some residents kept their children out of school as a precaution and stocked up on provisions, while others called for proof their president was alive.
Concerns over Bongo's health grew last month after he suspended his functions as head of the oil-producing state for the first time since taking power in 1967.
The country has a well-developed oil industry with France's Total SA one of the biggest investors in the country.
It also has a $1 billion Eurobond, which is due to mature in 2017 and which the government is in the process of buying back.
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The 73-year-old checked into the clinic in Barcelona in May, officially to rest after the sudden death of his wife. But reports that he was suffering from cancer fuelled speculation over who would lead the country if Bongo died.
Although there have been some concerns about stability, analysts say that even if Bongo dies the ruling party is likely to tightly manage the transition and that Bongo's successes in easing ethnic tensions will reduce the risk of turmoil.
Despite the government's denials of the French media's claims, some residents sought further reassurances.
"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.
France Info radio quoted "an informed source in Spain" saying that Bongo was in a potentially "very serious condition" and that he could be repatriated to Gabon by plane.
Oil output is in decline but oil revenues still account for about half of the country's income even though they have been hit by falling world energy prices.
Long accused of siphoning off state revenues while his nation of some 1.6 million remains underdeveloped, Bongo is facing a probe by a French magistrate into how he and his family acquired millions of dollars in cash and luxury homes and car.
(Additional reporting by Vanessa Romeo; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Nick Tattersall)
