Welcome to Gabon

Gabon is a country on the Atlantic coast of West Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo on the east and south, and the Gulf of Guinea to the west. It has an area of nearly 270,000 square kilometres (100,000 sq mi) and its population is estimated at 2.3 million people. Libreville is the country's capital and the largest city.

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Gabon's original inhabitants are the pygmy peoples. Beginning in the 14th century, Bantu migrants began settling in the area as well. Since its independence from France in August 1960, the sovereign state of Gabon has had three presidents. In the 1990s, it introduced a multi-party system and a democratic constitution that aimed for a more transparent electoral process and reformed some governmental institutions. Despite this, the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) remains the dominant party.

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Gabon is a developing country, ranking 112th in the Human Development Index. It is one of the richest countries in Africa in terms of per capita income; however, large parts of the population are very poor. Omar Bongo of PDG came into office in 1967 and created a kind of "Bongo dynasty", which stabilized its and his small elite power through a so-called clientelism network Françafrique.

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The official language is French and Bantu ethnic groups constitute around 95% of the country's population. Christianity is the nation's predominant religion, practiced by about 76% of the population. With petroleum and foreign private investment, it has the fourth highest HD in the region (after Mauritius, Seychelles and South Africa) and the fifth highest GDP per capita (PPP) in all of Africa (after Seychelles, Mauritius, Equatorial Guinea and Botswana).