Travel from one town to another is virtually impossible due to the poor state of the roads.
There is only one private airline which operates several flights at prohibitive prices.
The sole train line is often out of bounds for passengers, monopolised and regularly damaged by constant heavily loaded trains carrying manganese.
Gabon is either the second or third biggest manganese producer depending on the mineral's concentration.
Used in steelmaking and batteries, the manganese is mined almost exclusively by a local subsidiary of France's Eramet group.
Public hospitals lack equipment and medicine and the school system is in ruins -- the new military rulers say the two issues are among their priorities.
Gabon has failed to develop a real production or manufacturing sector.
It lives off imports, including fruit and vegetables, despite plentiful rainfall and fertile land.
Independence from France in 1960 was followed by an oil boom but today, "the country is struggling to translate large natural wealth into sustainable and inclusive growth", the World Bank says.
Gabon has one of Africa's highest unemployment rates, with one fifth of the active population out of work, rising to a third for under-25s, the United Nations said in 2020.
Under Omar Bongo, a close ally of France, Gabon was a pillar of "Francafrique" -- a policy whereby Paris furthered its interests through cronyism.
