Laure Olga Gondjout

Laure Olga Gondjout (born 18 December 1953 ) is a Gabonese politician. She served in the government of Gabon as Minister of Communication and Telecommunications from 2007 to 2008, as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2008, and again as Minister of Communication and Digital Economy from 2008 to 2011. Subsequently she was Secretary-General of the Presidency from 2011 to 2014. She has served as Ombudsman from February 2014 to January 2019

Political career Goundjout is the daughter of Paul Gondjout, a Gabonese politician prominent during the 1960s. After nearly two years in that position, she was appointed Minister of Communication, Posts, Telecommunications, and New Information Technologies on 28 December 2007. Soon afterwards, Jean Ping was elected Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, and on 4 February 2008 Gondjout was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs to replace him.

Gondjout served as Foreign Minister for eight months. In the government appointed on 7 October 2008, she was moved back to her old position as Minister of Communication, Posts, Telecommunications, and New Information Technologies; she was succeeded as Foreign Minister by Paul Toungui on 9 October.

Shortly after the death of President Omar Bongo at a Spanish hospital on 8 June 2009, Gondjout said that the constitution and the institutions of the Republic would be respected. Gondjout subsequently supported Bongo's son, Ali Bongo Ondimba, when he ran to succeed his father as President in the 2009 presidential election.

Gondjout reached the age of 60, the official retirement age for administrative positions, in December 2013. She was sworn in as Ombudsman on 11 February 2014. Speaking to PDG activists in the third arrondissement of Libreville on 15 February 2014, Gondjout, who was a member of the PDG Political Bureau, said that she had not resigned from the party, but that she could not hold elective office while serving as Ombudsman and had to relinquish her seat as a municipal councillor in the third arrondissement.