Édith Lucie Bongo Ondimba (March 10, 1964 – March 14, 2009) was the

First Lady of Gabon First Lady or First Gentleman of Gabon is the title held by the spouse of the president of Gabon. The current first lady is Sylvia Bongo Ondimba, who has held the office since 2009. First ladies of Gabon References {{First Ladies and Gentle ...

as the wife of President

Omar Bongo El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba (born Albert-Bernard Bongo; 30 December 1935 – 8 June 2009) was a Gabonese politician who was the second President of Gabon for 42 years, from 1967 until his death in 2009. Omar Bongo was promoted to key positions as ...

from 1989 to 2009.

Biography

Édith Lucie Bongo Ondimba was born March 10, 1964. She was the daughter of

Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

President,

Denis Sassou Nguesso Denis Sassou Nguesso (born 23 November 1943) is a Congolese politician and former military officer. He became president of the Republic of the Congo in 1997. He served a previous term as president from 1979 to 1992. During his first period as p ...

. Her marriage to President Bongo on August 4, 1989, was reportedly viewed politically as an example of cooperation between the two countries, according to ''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

''. She was a medical doctor by education, a pediatrician, with

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

as one of her main focuses. She helped create a forum for African first ladies to fight AIDS and founded associations for vulnerable children and people with disabilities.

Later life and death

In 2009, she was hospitalized in

Rabat, Morocco Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populatio ...

. On March 14, 2009, she died at the hospital, four days after her 45th birthday. The statement announcing her death specified neither the cause of death nor the nature of her illness. She had not appeared in public for around three years preceding her death. After the state funeral in

Libreville, Gabon Libreville is the capital and largest city of Gabon. Occupying in the northwestern province of Estuaire, Libreville is a port on the Komo River, near the Gulf of Guinea. As of the 2013 census, its population was 703,904. The area has been inh ...

, Édith Bongo's remains were taken to Edu, her father's home village in northern Congo for a traditional

Mbochi The Mbochi (or M'Boshi) are a Bantu ethnic group in Central Africa. Their language originates from the regions of the African Great Lakes where they began, after a long migration from the east to the centre, over the years, until 1850. This centr ...

tribal burial in the family cemetery there on March 20, 2009. The burial, nationally televised in Gabon and Congo, was attended by Presidents Bongo, Sassou Nguesso, and by the presidents of Benin, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Togo. Following her death, it was announced on Gabonese television on 6 May 2009 that Omar Bongo was "temporarily suspending his activities" as President in order to "regain strength and rest". The announcement stressed that Bongo had been deeply affected by the illness and death of his wife. President Bongo died a month later on 8 June 2009, nearly three months after Edith's death, at a clinic in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, Spain.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bongo, Edith 1964 births 2009 deaths Gabonese women physicians First Ladies and Gentlemen of Gabon Gabonese people of Republic of the Congo descent Republic of the Congo women physicians Children of national leaders Gabonese pediatricians 21st-century Gabonese people