Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent.
For months, Gabon’s government has been ensnared in “kevazingogate”—a scandal over the smuggling of protected timber. This week, the scandal appears to have cost the vice president and the forestry minister their jobs.
The drama began earlier this year when nearly 5,000 cubic meters of kevazingo wood was discovered in the country’s Libreville port ready to be shipped to China. The problem is that President Ali Bongo’s government banned the export of kevazingo last year in a bid to protect the country’s natural resources. The wood had been loaded into containers with labels from the Ministries of Water and Forestry describing it as a different, exportable timber.