<\/p>\n
President Ali Bongo of Gabon has been taken into medical care after suffering a bout of exhaustion during a trip to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, four days after he was hospitalised.<\/p>\n
The President\u2019s spokesman Ike Ngouoni said in a statement that the 59-year-old leader was in the Saudi capital for a flagship economic forum when he fell ill.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe doctors who assessed him said he is suffering from severe fatigue due to extremely high levels of activity in recent months,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bongo is feeling better and has been told to rest, Ngouoni added, while calling for \u201cvigilance\u201d against \u201cfake news\u201d following false reports of his death.<\/p>\n
A Cameroon TV station had announced live on air on Saturday that the Gabon president had died, without providing any evidence, he said.<\/p>\n
Bongo was scheduled to appear Wednesday on a panel at the Future Investment Initiative forum, but was not seen during the discussion.<\/p>\n
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited him in Riyadh\u2019s King Faisal hospital that evening, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
However, in a separate dispatch, SPA said Bongo attended a speech by Prince Mohammed at the conference later Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Bongo took over as leader of the oil-rich equatorial African nation in 2009 on the death of his father Omar Bongo, who had ruled since 1967.<\/p>\n
In 2016, Ali Bongo was re-elected by just a few thousand votes in a controversial presidential election.<\/p>\n
The country went to the polls this month for the first time since that vote, with the second round of legislative elections Saturday seeing Bongo\u2019s party coasting towards victory.<\/p>\n