President Paul Kagame, on May 3, arrived in Gabon to attend the swearing-in ceremony of President-elect Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema. President-elect Oligui Nguema will be sworn in on Saturday at the Sino-Gabonese Friendship Stadium in Libreville, the capital of Gabon. The ceremony will be followed by the formation of a new government, which will lead the country until the next legislative and local elections, the dates of which have yet to be announced. This marks the end of the transition period established after the coup of August 2023. Initially planned for two years, the transition ultimately lasted 19 months, culminating in an overwhelming victory for transitional President Oligui Nguema, who secured 94.85 percent of the votes in the presidential election held on April 12. The bilateral relations between both countries have seen Nguema visit Rwanda in October 2023, where both leaders discussed the security situation on the continent and in the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) region and various potential areas for collaboration. Kagame was last in Gabon in 2019 as part of efforts to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries. In April 2024, a delegation of Gabonese business leaders concluded a two-day visit to Rwanda, during which the two parties explored trade and investment opportunities, as both countries mull deepening economic and bilateral ties. Gabon is located along the Atlantic coast of Central Africa. It has four major exports: petroleum, manganese, uranium, and timber, accounting for the lion’s share of its gross domestic product.
