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Gabon's President Ali Bongo arrived in Morocco on Thursday for a recovery after a month of treatment at a Saudi hospital, a Moroccan diplomatic source said.
President Bongo, 59, has been in hospital in Saudi Arabia since October 24, the day he became ill at an economic forum.
The official Saudi news agency said President Bongo left Wednesday evening King Salman Air Base in Riyadh, and that officials of the Saudi Foreign Ministry had left him.
After arriving in Rabat Thursday morning, the Gabonese leader was taken to a hospital in the Moroccan capital, said the diplomatic source without giving more details.
His transfer was "in accordance with the wishes of His Excellency President Bongo, in agreement with the constitutional institutions of the Gabonese Republic, and in accordance with the opinion of the doctors," the Moroccan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
After a long period of silence, the Gabonese presidency finally admitted that Bongo was "gravely ill" and had undergone surgery, while claiming that he was recovering.
His recovery would take weeks, if not days, according to a source from the presidency.
The Gabonese president and the Moroccan king Mohammed VI maintain close relations since their youth.
During the past month, the Gabonese presidency has only issued two statements on the health of President Bongo. On October 29, she had announced for the first time that "he had been taken to the hospital" suffering from extreme fatigue ".
Then, on November 11, President Bongo's office admitted that he was "gravely ill" and that he had been operated on.
The absence of official news – as well as memories of the secret death surrounding the death of Bongo's father, Omar Bongo, in 2009 after decades at the helm – sparked many rumors, including speculation that he was incapacitated or even dead.
Earlier this month, a foreign source close to Mr. Bongo and his French wife, Sylvia, told AFP that the Gabonese president had been stricken with a stroke.
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