Claim: Gabon president fires VP, forests minister over hardwood scandal.
Verdict: SUPPORTS

Retrieved passages:
title: Alexandré Barro Chambrier
text: the Minister of Forest Economy, Water, Fisheries and Aquaculture, in charge of Water and Fisheries ( 2008–2009), Minister Delegate to the Minister of Development, Public Performance, Prospective and Statistics (2009). Since 14 January 2011 – February 2012, he served as the Minister of Mines, Petroleum and Hydrocarbons. He currently a member of the national parliament (4th District of Libreville) and a member of the Pan African Parliament (Midrand South Africa) The Economy of Gabon: Analysis, adjustment and adaptation policies. From Hugues Alexandre Barro Chambrier. Alexandré Barro Chambrier Alexandré Barro Chambrier (born 25 August 1958) is a Gabonese politician and MP

title: National Woodcutters' Rally – Rally for Gabon
text: National Woodcutters' Rally – Rally for Gabon The National Woodcutters Rally–Rally for Gabon (, RNB–RPG) is a political party in Gabon. The party was established in 1990 as Movement for National Rectification–Woodcutters ("Mouvement de Redressement National–Bûcherons", MORENA–Bûcherons), a breakaway from the Movement for National Rectification. In the 1990 parliamentary elections it won 20 of the 120 seats in the National Assembly, becoming the largest opposition party. In February 1991 it was renamed "National Woodcutters Rally" (RNB). The RNB nominated Paul Mba Abessole as its candidate for the 1993 presidential elections; He finished second with 26.5% of the vote. Although it

title: Paul Mba Abessole
text: Paul Mba Abessole Paul Mba Abessole (born October 9, 1939) is a Gabonese politician who heads the National Woodcutters' Rally – Rally for Gabon ("Rassemblement national des Bûcherons - Rassemblement pour le Gabon", RNB-RPG) and was a leading opponent of President Omar Bongo during the 1990s. He stood as a presidential candidate twice during the 1990s and also served as Mayor of Libreville, the capital. From 2002 to 2009 he served in the government of Gabon, holding the rank of Deputy Prime Minister for most of that period. Mba Abessole was born at Ngnung-Ako, located in northern Gabon, in 1939.

title: Pierre-André Kombila
text: Pierre-André Kombila Pierre-André Kombila Koumba (born 8 May 1941) is a Gabonese politician, professor, and medical doctor. He was the First Secretary of the National Rally of Woodcutters (RNB), Gabon's main opposition party, from 1990 to 1998; he then led a split from the RNB, establishing the more radical National Rally of Woodcutters - Democrats (RNB-D) in 1998. He was nominated as the RNB-D's candidate for the 1998 presidential election, but received only a small share of the vote. Later, he abandoned his opposition to President Omar Bongo and joined the government, serving as Minister of Technical and Vocational Education

title: Louis-Gaston Mayila
text: he was appointed as Director of the Cabinet of the President of the Republic in 1975. While retaining that post, he obtained the rank of Minister in 1976 and was assigned responsibility for posts and telecommunications; he was also placed in charge of relations with the National Timber Company of Gabon ("Société Nationale des Bois du Gabon", SNBG). He held the position of Minister of Postal Services, Reform and Semi-Public Firms, Tourism, and National Parks until being dismissed from the government on 4 February 1978. Mayila was Secretary-General of the Government with the rank of Minister in 1980; subsequently he

title: Rigobert Ngouolali
text: 1969. Ngouolali then worked as Director of Water and Forests at the Ministry of Agriculture, Water, and Forests from 1969 to 1976. Subsequently he was Congo-Brazzaville's Representative to the African Timber Organization, based in Libreville, from 1976 to 1990. Ngouolali was the African Timber Organization's Director of Industrialization from 1976 to 1981 and its Deputy Secretary-General from 1981 to 1990. He then worked as Deputy Director-General of the Industrial Afforestation Unit of Congo from 1990 to 1991. Ngouolali participated in the February–June 1991 National Conference, which initiated a political transition leading to multiparty elections. After the National Conference, he helped

title: 2016 Gabonese presidential election
text: The Parliament building was set on fire later in the day. The following day, Ping claimed that the presidential guard had bombed his party's headquarters, killing two people. By 2 September at least five people had been killed in the capital and 1,000 more has been arrested. The United Nations expressed "deep concern" about the violence. Along with France and the United States, it called for de-escalation on both sides of the dispute and pressed for more transparent detail on the vote outcome. Although he had previously criticized the Constitutional Court for allegedly favoring the government, Ping appealed the results

title: Marc Ona
text: a lack of financing. In March 2013, Ona Essangui was sentenced to a six-month suspended prison sentence and an approximately $10,000 USD fine for defamation of Liban Soleman, senior advisor to President Ali Bongo Ondimba. Marc Ona Marc Ona Essangui is founder of the environmental NGO Brainforest and president of Environment Gabon, a network of NGOs. Marc Ona Essangui led efforts to expose agreements behind a Chinese mining project in Gabon, a country in West Central Africa, that threatened equatorial rainforest ecosystems. According to Ona Essangui, the proposed Belinga development, a $3.5 billion project, was secretly negotiated. Local communities were

title: Jean Ping
text: true election results are acknowledged. During his July 2017 European tour, the protest movement gave him a warm welcome. Jean Ping Jean Ping (born 24 November 1942 in Omboué, Gabon) is a Gabonese diplomat and politician. He served as the Minister of State and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Francophonie of the Gabonese Republic from 1999 to 2008, and was President of the United Nations General Assembly from 2004 to 2005 and Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union from 2008 to 2012. He stood for the 2016 Gabonese presidential election against the outgoing president Ali Bongo. Jean

title: Marc Ona
text: Marc Ona Marc Ona Essangui is founder of the environmental NGO Brainforest and president of Environment Gabon, a network of NGOs. Marc Ona Essangui led efforts to expose agreements behind a Chinese mining project in Gabon, a country in West Central Africa, that threatened equatorial rainforest ecosystems. According to Ona Essangui, the proposed Belinga development, a $3.5 billion project, was secretly negotiated. Local communities were not consulted and are unaware of the effect that the project would have on their environment. Ona won the 2009 Africa Goldman Environmental Prize for his work. The project is currently on hold due to

title: Pierre-André Kombila
text: cardiologist, is a member of the Pan-African Cardiology Society, as well as an associate member and correspondent of the French Cardiology Society. As an opposition politician, Kombila became First Secretary of the National Rally of Woodcutters (RNB) in 1990 and was elected to the National Assembly as an RNB candidate in the Moabi constituency of Nyanga Province in the 1990 parliamentary election. He was designated as the Chairman of the Committee for Free and Democratic Elections, an opposition body, in June 1993. Paul Mba Abessole, the President of the RNB, stood as the party's presidential candidate in the December 1993

title: 2009 Gabonese presidential election
text: Rally for Gabon (RPG), which was part of the Presidential Majority coalition (and formerly an opposition party), held its 11th Extraordinary Congress in Libreville on 12 July 2009 and unanimously chose its President, Deputy Prime Minister Paul Mba Abessole, as its candidate. He was immediately backed by three other parties: the Movement for National Rectification (MORENA) and the National Rally of Woodcutters (RNB), both part of the Presidential Majority, as well as the Party of Equal Opportunity (PEC), an opposition party. The RPG stressed that it had no intentions of leaving the Presidential Majority, but also that Mba Abessole would

title: Jean Ping
text: until 1984. On returning to Gabon in 1984, Jean Ping began his political career as Chief of Staff to Omar Bongo, President of the Gabonese Republic. On 26 February 1990, he was appointed Minister of Information, Postal Services, Telecommunications, Tourism, Leisure and Parastatal Sector Reform with responsibility for Parliamentary relations and government spokesman. He held the position only briefly before moving to the head of the Ministry of Mines, Energy and Hydraulic Resources from 29 April 1990 to June 1991, then again for nineteen months from 28 August 1992 to 24 March 1994. On 25 March 1994, he was given

title: 2009 Gabonese presidential election
text: in Libreville, during which the police fired tear gas, and then went into hiding. Communications Minister Gondjout said that Mamboundou was unharmed, however. Although protesters burned cars and set up barricades in Libreville, security forces were in clear control of the streets by the end of the day. Additional violence was reported in Nkembo, located east of Libreville. Meanwhile, Gabonese students in Dakar set fire to Gabon's embassy in Senegal. In mid-September, opposition leaders called for the people to stay home and observe a three-day general strike, while Interim President Rogombé urged the people to ignore the opposition leaders and

title: Alexandré Barro Chambrier
text: and Francophone within the Government of Gabon. From 1990 to 1994, he served as Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Gabon. In charge of the Special Committee on the Economic and Financial Crisis of the Republic of Gabon. Between 1994 and 2002 he served as the Alternate Director and Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, representing 24 African countries. From September 2004 – December 2005 he was the Deputy Minister in charge of Forestry, responsible for Nature Conservation, Deputy Minister in charge of Economy, Finances, Budget and Privatization (2006–2007), Minister Delegate to

title: National Woodcutters' Rally – Rally for Gabon
text: won a majority of the contested seats in the 1996 local elections, The party was reduced to seven seats in the 1996 parliamentary elections. However, the following year Mba Abessole was elected mayor of Libreville, where the RNB had a majority on the municipal council. In 1998 the party split, with a faction led by Pierre-André Kombila leaving to form the National Woodcutters' Rally – Democratic. In the presidential elections later in the year, Mba Abessole finished third with 13% of the vote and Kombila fourth with 1.5%. In 2000 the party adopted the name "Rally for Gabon", but was

title: Omar Bongo
text: Bongo and the leading political opposition leader, Joseph Rendjambe, was found dead in a hotel, reportedly murdered by poison. The death of Rendjambe, a prominent business executive and secretary-general of the opposition group "Parti gabonais du progres" (PGP), touched off the worst rioting in Bongo's 23-year rule. Presidential buildings in Libreville were set on fire and the French consul-general and ten oil company employees were taken hostage. French troops evacuated foreigners and a state of emergency was declared in Port Gentil, Rendjambe's hometown and a strategic oil production site. During this emergency Gabon's two main oil producers, Elf and Shell,

title: Zulkifli Hasan
text: not rehearsed the interview before filming commenced. Ford was making part of series on climate change called "Years of Living Dangerously" for US television network Showtime. During Zulkifli's tenure as forestry minister, forests in Sumatra and Kalimantan were burned to clear land for plantations, causing hazardous haze that reached neighboring Singapore and Malaysia. In 2013, Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the head of Indonesia's presidential working unit for development supervision and control, said many fires were on land owned by Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) and Asia Pacific Resources International Limited. Zulkifli said there was no strong evidence against the two companies. In

title: Omar Bongo
text: along with President Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of the Congo, Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea and José Eduardo dos Santos from Angola was being investigated by the French magistrates after the complaint made by French NGOs Survie and Sherpa due to claims that he has used millions of pounds of embezzled public funds to acquire lavish properties in France. The leaders all denied wrongdoing. The "Sunday Times" (UK) reported on 20 June 2008 as follows:A mansion worth £15m in one of Paris's most elegant districts has become the latest of 33

title: Jean-Paul Lanfranchi
text: the sugar sector of the Ivory Coast of Gabon and Central African Republic. Jean Paul Lanfranchi will help the restructuration of many state enterprises to the Omar Bongo, second president of the Gabonese Republic. He managed the rescue of Sugar Company of Upper Ogoouénotemment (SOSUHO) to Franceville, capital of Haut-Ogooué province of birth of the President. He works closely with Patrice Otha, Chapter President of Gabon Initiative Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and new Chief of Staff for Ali Bongo since January 2010. Jean Paul Lanfranchi is in Castel Group advisor to President Pierre Castel., the son of Spanish worker born