Benin's embassy in Gabon burnt in chaos over opposition leader's death

Beninese Embassy in Gabon and three vehicles were razed down after violence broke out on Sunday in Libreville following the death of radical opposition leader Andre Mba Obame, the spokesman for the Presidency Alain Claude Bilie By Nze told Xinhua.

Bilie By Nze said the protesters also attacked the Nigerien Embassy in Libreville.

Obame who could have been 58 years old in two months time, died early on Sunday in Yaounde, Cameroon, after a long illness.

After the announcement of his death, opposition supporters flooded Libreville streets and began protesting.

A former interior minister during the regime of Omar Bongo Ondimba, the father to incumbent President Ali Bongo Ondimba, Obame was named as the coordinator of governmental action after the death of Omar Bongo in 2009.

He later resigned from the position and contested for the 2009 presidential elections that were won by Ali Bongo.

A doctor of Political Science who studied at Laval University and Pantheon-Sorbonne University, Obame who had come third in the presidential elections under the National Union party, declared himself as the president of the republic in January 2011. He later formed a parallel government.

However, a long illness had kept him outside the country. In May 2011, he underwent sciatic nerve surgery in France.

After his recovery, he returned to Gabon and rejoined political voices opposed to Ali Bongo and his government.