Outel Bono

Outel Bono (Fort Archambauld, 8 December 1934 – Paris, 26 August 1973) was a Chadian medical doctor and politician. Inspired by Marxist and anti-colonialist thinking,

Biography Outel Bono was born to a southern Chadian family in 1934. From 1945 onwards, he lived in France, then still the country's colonial power, and was schooled in Bordeaux among other places. In 1952, he met his future wife, Nadine Bono (née Dauch), in Cahors. They would marry in 1959 and have three children, named Mariame, Daimane and Tarik. As he lived in Tunisia between 1959 and 1961, Bono maintained contacts with Algerian nationalists and went on a visit to Maoist China with the FEANF. He was reprieved in 1965 and was able to resume his medical career. Tombalbaye even appointed him Director (i.e. chief civil servant) of the Chadian Health Ministry in an attempt to co-opt his political power.

In December 1977, he police investigation found strong indications that the true identity of Hardy was a certain Claude Bocquel, whom they localized in southern France. Bocquel had been a bodyguard of both Bokassa and Omar Bongo, had ties to Gourvennec, admitted to using the pseudonym "Léonardy", and had received a sum of 200.000 francs in 1974. The police also discovered a revolver and a car in his home which corresponded to testimonies from the assassination and found out that there were holes in Bocquel's alibi. Moreover, despite denying that he was the killer, Bocquel added that he would have assassinated Bono if Gourvennec or the French authorities had asked him to do so.

The investigators further found out that Bocquel had initially helped Bokassa to establish FROLINAT training camps in 1969, when the Central African strongman was embroiled in conflict with Tombalbaye. In March 1970, he had been expelled by Bokassa after the French discovered these camps, then arrested by Gourvennec during a layover in Chad. After a "rough interrogation" by Gourvennec and Galopin, Bocquel confessed his aid to FROLINAT and agreed to start working for the Chadian secret services. Meanwhile, Gourvennec had returned to France, but died in 1978 in suspicious circumstances; the intelligence agent believed him to have been poisoned.

The Outel Bono case has been cited as an example of the web of secret links between powerful people in France and its former African colonies, named the Françafrique by authors and publicists including François-Xavier Verschave. The case was further examined by historians, most notably Jean-Pierre Bat. According to historian Nathaniel Powell, the role of Gourvennec and the Chadian regime in Bono's killing has been established through "clear evidence", whereas the involvement of the broader French authorities and secret services remains a matter of debate.

Nadine Bono died in 2015.