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Having ruled the West African state of Gabon for more than 40 years, Omar Bongo Ondimba was Africa's longest serving leader.
But his successes were tempered by allegations that he had enriched himself from the proceeds of Gabon's oil boom in the 1970s and 1980s and squandered them on luxury homes and cars in France.
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| Bongo was liked by France which had murky ties with some of its former colonies AFP |
French authorities have already begun investigating his financial activities inside the country.
A report by corruption watchdog, Transparency International, accused him of using millions of dollars of embezzled money to buy real estate in Paris and on the French Rivier.
Bongo always denied the allegations.
Born on December 30, 1935 he was one of 12 children born to a peasant family in the Bateke region of southeast Gabon.
Albert-Bernard Bongo was only 27 when he caught the attention of Leon Mba, Gabon's first ruler.
Mba made him his vice-president five years later.
Single party regime
Less than nine months passed before Mba died and Bongo became Africa's fourth ever youngest president.
He set about building the single-party regime that was to dominate Gabon's political scene.
Bongo took a new name, becoming el-Hadj Omar Bongo after his conversion to Islam in 1973, and added his father's name - Ondimba - to his own in 2003.
From one of Gabon's smallest ethnic minorities, Bongo tolerated no opposition but was always careful how he handed out positions of power, showing respect at the same time for Gabon's ethnic and regional complexities.
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| Bongo was accused of corruption and electoral fraud during his long career [AFP] |
He was challenged by a populist surge in 1990 and installed a multi-party system, but his Gabonese Democratic Party always held the absolute majority in parliament.
When Bongo was re-elected in 1998 with 66.88 per cent of the vote and again in 2005 with 79.21 per cent, the opposition accused him of electoral fraud.
But he remained in power, dismantling his rivals by handing out privileges and contracts that enabled him to rally some of his fiercest opponents to his cause.
Edith Lucie Bongo Odimba, the president's wife, daughter of Denis Sassou Nguesso, Congo's president, died in March aged 45.
Following her death Bongo announced he was "temporarily" suspending his own duties to rest and mourn.
At an international level, Bongo was one of the African leaders favoured by France which maintained murky ties with some of its former colonies for "reasons of state".
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