Gabon’s top diplomat dies after a heart attack during a meeting

Gabon’s top diplomat, Michael Moussa Adamou, died after suffering a heart attack during a government meeting on Friday, official sources said.

The government said in a brief statement that Musa Adamu, 62, an ally of President Ali Bongo Ondimba, suffered a heart attack and died “despite the efforts of specialists” to revive him.

A source close to the presidential palace told Agence France-Presse that “he had sat at the beginning of the government meeting and began to feel unwell.”

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he was taken to a military hospital unconscious but died shortly after midday.

In response to his death, President Bongo called Musa Adamu on Twitter “a great diplomat and a true statesman”.

He added, “For me, he was at first a friend, loyal and loyal, and I always counted on him. It is a great loss for Gabon.”

Musa Adamu was born in the northeastern city of Makoko in 1961 and started his career as a presenter on national television.

In 2000, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Minister of Defense, who at that time was Bongo.

When Bongo was elected president after the death of his father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, in 2009, Musa Adamu served as his special advisor.

After a decade as Gabon’s ambassador to the United States until 2020, he first became defense minister and then foreign minister in March last year.