Gabon Foreign Minister Michael Adamo dies while attending cabinet meeting

Gabon's Foreign Minister Michael Moussa Adamo is dead. Mr Adamo died of a heart attack Friday as he waited to attend a Cabinet meeting in Libreville, sources said.

President Ali Bongo Ondimba confirmed Mr Adamo’s death in a tweet. He described Mr Adamo as a great diplomat and veritable statesman.

"To me, he was firstly a friend, loyal and faithful,  whom I have always been able to count on. It's a huge loss for Gabon," Bongo said on Friday.

Moussa Adamo, 62, a long-standing ally of President Ali Bongo Ondimba, suffered a heart attack and died "despite efforts by specialists" to revive him, the government said in a brief statement.

He "sat down in the waiting room" just before the start of the cabinet meeting "in the presence of some of his government colleagues and began to feel unwell", a source close to the presidential palace told AFP.

He was taken to a military hospital while unconscious but died just after midday (1100 GMT), the source who spoke on condition of anonymity said.

Moussa Adamo was born in the northeastern town of Makokou in 1961 and started out as a presenter on national television.

In 2000, he was made chief of staff for the defence minister, who at the time was Bongo.

When Bongo was elected president on the death of his father Omar Bongo Ondimba in 2009, Moussa Adamo served as his special advisor.

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