Bongo buys €100m Paris mansion
2010-05-26 22:49
Paris - Ali Ben Bongo, the 51-year-old president of poverty-ravaged Gabon, has bought a magnificent Paris mansion worth €100m, a French investigative newspaper said on Wednesday.
Gabon is buying an 18th-century house on a fine street, Rue de l'Universite, with 4 500m² of living space. It includes parking space and a garden on 3 700m² of land in the crowded city.
On paper, Gabon's oil income makes it one of the richest nations in Africa in per-capita terms, but most Gabonese are very poor.
Bongo's interest in luxury real estate appears to be inherited from his father Omar (1935-2009), who was Africa's longest-serving head of state, the newspaper Canard Enchaine said tongue in cheek.
It added mockingly that he had even practised "good governance" and "transparency" by announcing the purchase, though not the address or the price. The house is just around the corner from the Musee d'Orsay, one of the top museums in Paris.
Before Omar Bongo died, French prosecutors were investigating him for misappropriating Gabonese funds.
- SAPA