The lawmakers are at odds with growing public protests calling for an end to the Bongo dynasty.

Gabonese are saying ça suffit – that’s enough  – with increasingly regularity and volume.

They’re referring to the 50-year Bongo dynasty.

President Ali Bongo came to power in 2009 on the death of his father Omar Bongo who had been at the helm for 42 years.

Oil-rich Gabon has the highest per capita income in Africa.

But the average disguises the reality.

The United Nations says 60 percent of the 1,7 million Gabonese live below the poverty line.

Youth unemployment is  37 percent.

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More than 300 bodies have been recovered and Vice President Victor For says many hundreds might still lie under the mud.

The Red Cross says at least 3 000 have been left homeless by the heavy rains that turned roads into rivers of churning mud.

But the initial concern is for the hundreds killed – many as they slept – in their homes.

Recovery teams have to wait for the flood to subside to begin their tragic operation.

President Ernest Bai Koroma  has called it  a national tragedy.

Sixty percent of Sierra Leoneans live under the poverty line, forcing them to build ramshackle homes in dangerous places.

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