Laure Olga Gondjout at Women in ICTs - 8093109382

Laure Olga Gondjout (born 18 December 1953Georges Dougueli
"Gabon : Laure Olga Gondjout... la retraite, elle ? Jamais !"
''Jeune Afrique'', 30 January 2014 .) is a

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...

ese politician. She served in the government of Gabon as Minister of Communication and Telecommunications from 2007 to 2008, as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2008, and again as Minister of Communication and Digital Economy from 2008 to 2011. Subsequently she was Secretary-General of the Presidency from 2011 to 2014. She has served as Ombudsman from February 2014 to January 2019

Political career

Goundjout is the daughter of

Paul Gondjout Paul Marie Indjendjet Gondjout (4 June 1912 – 1 July 1990) was a Gabonese politician and civil servant, and the father of Laure Gondjout, another prominent Gabonese politician. Gondjout was a member of the Mpongwe ethnic group, and served ...

, a Gabonese politician prominent during the 1960s. She worked as an interpreter and was 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 ...

's private secretary for years. On 21 January 2006, she was appointed Deputy Minister to Senior Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jean Ping, in the government of Prime Minister

Jean Eyeghe Ndong Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * Jean ...

."Léger remaniement du gouvernement gabonais"
Xinhua, 4 February 2008 . After nearly two years in that position, she was appointed Minister of Communication, Posts, Telecommunications, and New Information Technologies on 28 December 2007."Gabon: Gouvernement : Laure Olga Gondjout dans ses nouvelles fonctions à la tête de la diplomatie gabonaise"
, Gabonews, 6 February 2008 . Soon afterwards, Jean Ping was elected

Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union The Chairperson of the African Union Commission is the head of the African Union Commission. On January 30, 2017, it was announced that Chad's Moussa Faki Moussa Faki Mahamat ( ar, موسى فكي محمد ', born 21 June 1960) is a Chadian pol ...

, and on 4 February 2008 Gondjout was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs to replace him. She took office as Foreign Minister on 6 February. In the April 2008 local elections, Gondjout headed the candidate list of the

Gabonese Democratic Party The Gabonese Democratic Party (french: Parti Démocratique Gabonais, abbreviated PDG), is the ruling and dominant political party of Gabon. Between 1968 and 1990 it was the sole legal party. History The party was established as the Gabonese Dem ...

(PDG) in the third ''arrondissement'' of

Libreville 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 ...

. Gondjout served as Foreign Minister for eight months. In the government appointed on 7 October 2008, she was moved back to her old position as Minister of Communication, Posts, Telecommunications, and New Information Technologies; she was succeeded as Foreign Minister by Paul Toungui on 9 October. Shortly after the death of President

at a Spanish hospital on 8 June 2009, Gondjout said that the constitution and the institutions of the Republic would be respected. Gondjout subsequently supported Bongo's son,

Ali Bongo Ondimba Ali Bongo Ondimba (born Alain Bernard Bongo; 9 February 1959),"Bongo Ali", ''Gabon: Les hommes de pouvoir'', number 4Africa Intelligence 5 March 2002 . sometimes known as Ali Bongo, is a Gabonese politician who has been the third president of Ga ...

, when he ran to succeed his father as President in the 2009 presidential election. After winning the election, Bongo initially retained Gondjout as Minister of Communication, but he later moved her to the powerful post of Secretary-General of the Presidency on 14 January 2011. Gondjout reached the age of 60, the official retirement age for administrative positions, in December 2013. Bongo then moved Gondjout from her prominent post as Secretary-General of the Presidency to the comparatively obscure post of Ombudsman on 16 January 2014. She was sworn in as Ombudsman on 11 February 2014. Speaking to PDG activists in the third ''arrondissement'' of Libreville on 15 February 2014, Gondjout, who was a member of the PDG Political Bureau, said that she had not resigned from the party, but that she could not hold elective office while serving as Ombudsman and had to relinquish her seat as a municipal councillor in the third ''arrondissement''."Laure Olga Gondjout, en retrait du PDG"
Gabon Review, 18 February 2014 .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gondjout, Laure Olga 1953 births Living people Foreign ministers of Gabon Government ministers of Gabon Gabonese Democratic Party politicians Women government ministers of Gabon Female foreign ministers 21st-century women politicians Gabonese women diplomats 21st-century Gabonese people