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The Foreign Ministry of Gabon

Noël Nelson Messone

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation

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Noël Nelson Messone was born on December 22nd, 1960 in Ovan, Gabon. He is married and has three children and has been serving the Gabonese Republic as minister of foreign affairs since 2016.

Messone first specialized in American Studies at the Omar Bongo Odimba University in Gabon in 1987. A year later he moved to Paris and began his studied at the University of Paris-Sorbonne-Nouvelle. After receiving his bachelor in Paris, he moved to Lexington, Kentucky to strive for a master in diplomacy and international commerce at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce. After completing his master degree, Messone continued on to complete his doctorate in political economy at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Once his education was completed, Messone worked various positions with the United States Peace Corps in his home country. After which he worked for the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie in Togo and France. Following his work in Paris, Messone returned to Gabon and worked as minister of foreign affairs to the republic between 2007 and 2009. In 2009 he was elected as senator in the Gabonese parliament. In 2010 he left to Brussels, Belgium to become to Gabonese ambassador to Benelux and the European Union. In 2011 he switched jobs again becoming the permanent resident of Gabon to the United Nations between 2011 and 2016. In 2016 after his return to Gabon he was appointed minister of foreign affairs to the Gabonese Republic.