HOMEFRONT OBITUARY Farewell‘Mère Edith’ The grief of the Gabonese nation was shared by world leaders on the news of the death of the First Lady of , Edith-Lucie Bongo Ondimba

HE WIFE OF GABONESE President know how much her long illness caused you to held and all regular TV programmes were El Haj Ondimba and suffer far beyond what your discretion allowed interrupted to show the funeral live. the eldest daughter of Congolese you to show. I know too that the formality of The First Lady was laid to rest on March 22 President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, condolences and relations between states can in Congo in the northern town of Edou before Edith-Lucie Bongo Ondimba appear distant and unnatural during such a thousands of people and seven presidents, Tpassed away aged 45 on March 14 in , difficult personal time. It is therefore as a friend including her husband and her father, and her , where she had been undergoing rather than as a that I send you two children Yacine and Omar Denis. treatment for a long illness. my very deepest sympathies.” “You will rest here with your people. God Thousands of people turned out in Gabon will welcome you to his kingdom,” said to mourn their First Lady. Soldiers formed a National day of President Sassou-Nguesso. He and President guard of honour for the coffin draped in the Ten African heads of state and two prime Bongo laid a wreath of flowers before the flag of her native Republic of Congo where ministers attended the funeral including coffin bedecked with the green, yellow and she was buried following a in Central Africa’s François Bozizé; Idriss Déby of blue Gabonese flag. Hundreds of red roses . Crowds wept on the streets of the ; Faure Gnassingbé of ; Amadou were thrown by mourners onto her coffin capital as a white hearse carried the coffin Toumani Touré of ; Laurent Gbagbo of the along with a banner which read: “For us, you from the airport to the Presidential Palace ; Thomas Yayi Boni of ; will always be a model”. where she was laid in state. Fradique de Menezes of São Tomé and Aimé Emmanuel Yoka, Justice Minister for Numerous heads of state sent messages of Príncipe; and the First Lady of the Democratic Congo, spoke of the “exceptional destiny of condolence to the Gabonese President includ- Republic of Congo, Olive Lembe Kabila. this child, daughter and wife of a head of ing Mohammed VI, the King of Morocco; was represented by the President’s state”. In spite of her suffering, he said, she Laurent Gbagbo, President of the Ivory Coast; General Secretary Claude Guéant and had been born to be loved in Congo and and Alpha Omar Konaré, former leader of Mali. Cooperation and Francophony Minister Alain Gabon, adding that she had been a figure AFP GETTY, Clockwise: The First Lady and President Bongo arrive at the Elysée Palace, Paris; opening the African First Ladies’ Summit in 2001; with Congolese counterpart Antoinette French President wrote: “I Joyandet. An ecumenical church service was of courage and strength. I Sassou-Nguesso in , 2002, for the Francophony Summit; with Bernadette Chirac at Libreville’s General Hospital for the opening of an Aids treatment centre President Bongo stands before his wife’s coffin at the Presidential Palace in Libreville (left). Right: President Bongo, his son Omar Denis, daughter Yacine Queenie and Congolese President Denis Sassou-Nguesso leave Rabat. Below: A guard of honour carries the coffin of the First Lady in Libreville A champion of women Gabon’s First Lady was a doctor whose healing hands touched the lives of the nation

ORN IN 1964 in , people you have put on this Earth.” Her work called for an end to the stigma that exists about Congo, Edith-Lucie Bongo at the heart of Gabonese society won her the Aids in Africa. Accompanied by 40 African First Ondimba was the eldest daughter affectionate sobriquet of ‘Mère Edith’. Ladies and in the presence of former US First of President Denis Sassou-Nguesso. In 1996, she established Fondations Lady Laura Bush, she unveiled a unified effort to A medical doctor by profession, she Horizons Nouveaux (FHN) in Libreville. A centre fight HIV/Aids in Africa, challenging adults to Bbegan her career at the University Teaching of excellence praised by UNESCO and a take responsibility for infection among children Hospital of Brazzaville in 1989 where she pioneering institution in Africa, it has a team of and to break their silence on the disease. worked as a paediatrician before her marriage specialised staff and provides dedicated and “Our objective is to awaken a sense of in 1990 to the . subsidised care for children with disabilities. humanity and responsibility in people,” she From the start, the new wife of the chief of As a member of Médecins du Monde, she said. In Gabon she led a series of nationwide state insisted on continuing her career, taking dedicated much time to the international awareness campaigns, encouraging fidelity, up a post at the paediatric hospital of humanitarian aid organisation and was the abstinence and the use of the condom. Owendo, Libreville. “For me, not working founder of Gabon’s best-equipped hospital, From the start, she was a champion of the would be unthinkable,” she said. “Fortunately, the Polyclinique El-Rapha in Libreville. women of Gabon. “It is women who are the my husband has always understood that...” HIV/Aids is a disease in which she had a most vulnerable to HIV because of their Her upbringing as the daughter of one of strong interest. “I specialised in retroviral economic weakness,” she said. “We need to Africa’s longest-serving statesmen helped diseases for my doctoral thesis and had the awaken in them a spirit of independence and equip her with the skills required for a string of chance to see this virus both under the micro- improve their intellectual, cultural and ambitious projects that improved the lives of scope and in action in my own country,” she economic skills, and then assist them further the Gabonese people. said. That challenge inspired her to become with training, home management and micro- Motherhood – she gave the President a son the founding president of the organisation finance skills. If we can do that, believe me, and a daughter – was a motivating factor: African First Ladies Against HIV/Aids in 2002, women will be the making of this country.” I “Having children changes you,” she said. “It and to take a leading role in New York at the Sarah Monaghan GETTY teaches you to have a healthy fear for the Treat Every Child as Your Own campaign that

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