Alfred Ngamba, a journalist with the bi-monthly newspaper "Le Nganga", was arrested and detained on 8 March 2004. He is currently incarcerated at the "Gros bouquet" prison in the Gabonese capital, Libreville. "Le Nganga" is published in the capital. According to "Le Nganga" editorial staff, Ngamba has been charged with libelling a medical doctor in an article he wrote for the paper. The unidentified doctor is also director of a well-known Libreville-based non-governmental organisation.

It is normally vibrant with pupils in classrooms and the yard, but the students and teachers are now at home. They will not return until a commission set up by the ministry of education to investigate the problems plaguing the school submits its report. The authorities in Gabon, which oil has made one of Africa's richest countries, closed the school a month ago following student unrest. "The Omar Bongo High School is sinking," said the minister, after participants informed him that there was prostitution in the school. The minister was informed that girls had sexual relations with teachers to get better grades and that expelled pupils offered bribes to remain in the school.

Four days of rioting by secondary school students in Libreville last week highlighted a growing frustration with education cutbacks in Gabon, a country that grew rich on oil, but which is now struggling to cope with a steady decline in production. The country's main technical school remains closed after four days of rioting over cutbacks to a free student bus service in which one student was killed.

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has expressed concern about the recent measures taken by the National Communications Council (Conseil national de la Communication, CNC) against four private media outlets. During the week of 16 May 2003, the CNC decided to suspend the publication of two private newspapers, "Misamu" and "Le Temps". In addition, the publications "Jeunesse Action" and "l'Espoir" received official warnings from the council.

Access to potable water remains a critical problem in both rural Gabon and poorer suburbs of big cities. Libreville, the capital of oil-rich Gabon, is home to 600,000 people, many of whom live in its poorer suburbs with no access to clean running water.

As night falls in Gabon's capital Libreville, 13-year-old Arthur Goma stakes his patch for scraping out an existence in a country torn apart by devastating wealth inequality. For the street children of Libreville, survival is a nocturnal struggle of begging and gangland battles in a west African country which was once considered as one of the richest in Africa.

The government of Gabon has heard that it needs to expand its inter-ministerial commission against child trafficking, reinforce its laws on illegal child immigration and repatriation, and sensitise its security forces in order to minimise the exploitation of children.

A full 10 percent of the land mass of the African country of Gabon will be set aside for a system of national parks, the nation's government announced last Wednesday. Gabon, which had no national park system until this week, contains some of the most pristine tropical rainforests on earth, home to gorillas, chimpanzees, forest elephants and a host of other wildlife.

There have been a total of 91 confirmed cases of the Ebola virus in the Republic of Congo (RoC) and neighbouring Gabon, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported in its latest situation update on 15 March.

A three-day workshop aimed at strengthening efforts to fight child trafficking in West and Central Africa began on Wednesday in Libreville, Gabon.

Scientific American - "Slavery still flourishes underground in many parts of the world. This case study presents the perspectives of West African social scientists, diplomats, activists and escaped slaves in Gabon. Of particular interest is the Gabonese effort to rehabilitate and repatriate those children who have the luck and courage to escape their bondage."

The Committee on the Rights of the Child has started its examination of an initial report from Gabon with a Government delegation saying that Gabon's capacities and performances in health and education have allowed the implementation of children's rights at an appreciable level.

The death toll from Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Gabon and the Republic of Congo was 24 as at 6 January, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported on Monday. It said 17 of the deaths were in Gabon, where the Ebola outbreak was first reported last month.

An outbreak of the Ebola virus in the north-eastern Ogooue-Ivindo province of Gabon last week, may have been caused by consumption of monkey meat by the victims, news reports quoted the government as saying on Wednesday.

The World Health Organization has said that 10 people have now died from the Ebola virus in Gabon.

According to information collected by RSF, on 18 October 2001, Mr. Barre, head of Sogapresse, asked that shipments of "Le Gri-Gri International" be stopped. Yet, a week earlier, Sogapresse had ordered more copies of the newspaper because of high demand for it in Gabon.

Biologist Dr Michael Fay of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society(WCS) has made an impassioned appeal to save the Langoue Forest, a pristine area of more than 600,000 acres within the Congo jungle in Gabon, Business Wire reported on Tuesday.