LIBREVILLE (AFP) — Teachers in Gabon, who went on strike for three months to secure pay rises, have walked out again to force the government to apply the accords, union officials said Tuesday.
The strike hit as the country awaits news of its ailing leader President Omar Bongo Ondimba, Africa's longest serving leader, who is hospitalised in Spain.
The main teachers' union, Conasysed, says the government has failed to pay a 90-150 euro bonus promised under an accord signed in January to end the previous strike. It says the government has also failed to unblock 30 million euros to pay promise salary arrears.
The teachers went on strike when classes resumed in October, 2008.
The end of the current school year has already been put back to August in a bid to catch up with lost time. But the teachers say that if the current strike lasts more than two weeks there will be no school exams.
With Bongo's absence, Prime Minister Jean Eyeghe Ndong, who signed the agreement with the teachers in January, is running the country.
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