Unrest spreads in Gabon ahead of presidential poll

Libreville - Strikes in schools, hospitals and in private business, along with a drop in vital oil revenues, have brought turbulent times for Gabon's President Ali Bongo Ondimba.

Rallied by a score of trade unions in the public sector, teachers and health workers have stayed off work since the beginning of February to press home their wage claims, prompting the administration to dock pay.

In weeks of rowdy negotiations, the strikers' representatives have made no concessions to the government of the densely forested equatorial African country, which benefits from plentiful oil reserves as well as tropical hardwood.