By NDI EUGENE NDI

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Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba has dissolved the Ministry of Public Works, Equipment and Infrastructure citing incompetence, Prime Minister Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda said, reading a presidential decree.

The decision, the PM said, follows “many complaints” from citizens over the deterioration of urban roads.

“The President of the Republic Ali Bongo Ondimba expresses his anger at the slowness, constantly observed and denounced by him, in the rehabilitation of the national road network,” Ms Raponda said, making the declaration in a recorded video released to the media.

The President ordered the creation of a department under the Prime Minister’s office that would take over the operations and staff of the dissolved ministry.

An upper-middle-income country with a population of two million people (2017), Gabon is rich in natural resources and is the fifth largest oil producer in Africa. According to the World Bank, its economy is driven by oil and manganese.