The BBC's Andrew Harding reflects on his years in a country of increasingly stark contrasts.

Many homes are without electricity since Friday and Nairobi's main airport was plunged into darkness.

The incumbent President Ali Bongo hopes to extend his family's five-decade grip on power.

Outlawed in the 1960s for being "inhumane" the current president wants to bring it back.

Its leader followed a long line of mercenaries in Africa, but his group faces an uncertain future.