Gabon's President Brice Oligui Nguema has replaced his finance minister, Henri-Claude Oyima, according to a decree, as the oil-producing Central African country grapples with a liquidity squeeze and rising arrears, Reuters reported. Gabon has become increasingly reliant on regional capital markets to meet its financing needs, though appetite for its debt "has weakened substantially", ratings agency Fitch said last month, when it downgraded the country's long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating.

Workers at a French timber subsidiary in Gabon held managers hostage in a French-style "bossnapping" to secure their pay demands, both sides said Tuesday, Agence France-Presse reported. The managers, including the new Chinese buyers of the firm, were released on Monday several hours after being held at their plant in the port of the capital Libreville. The dispute took place at the premises of Leroy Gabon and Pogab, which are both subsidiaries of the French plywood company Plysorol, which was placed in receivership last week by a French court.