Page "Omar Bongo" Paragraph 41

On the international stage, Bongo cultivated an image as a peacemaker, playing a pivotal role in attempts to solve the crises in the Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In 1986, Bongo's image was boosted abroad when he received the Dag Hammarskjold Peace Prize for efforts to resolve the Chad-Libya border conflict.

He was popular among his own people as his reign had guaranteed peace and stability.

Under Mr. Bongo's rule, Gabon never had a coup or a civil war, a rare achievement for a nation surrounded by unstable, war-torn states.

Fueled by oil, the country's economy was more like that of an Arabian emirate than a Central African nation.

For many years Gabon was said, perhaps apocryphally, to have the world's highest per capita consumption of Champagne.