The Foreign Minister of Gabon, Michael Moussa Adamo suffered heart attack while in a meeting and died.

A longtime ally of President Bongo, even before he became president in 2009, could not be resuscitated after he suffered a heart attack.

According to the government and a presidential source, Adamo died of cardiac arrest.

The 62-year-old who was an ally of President Ali Bongo Ondimba died “despite efforts by specialists” to revive him, the government said in a brief statement on Friday.

A source close to the presidential palace said that he “had sat down at the start of the cabinet meeting and began to feel unwell”.

Moussa Adamo was taken to a military hospital while unconscious but died just after midday, the source who spoke on condition of anonymity said.

President Bongo described Moussa Adamo on Twitter as “a great diplomat, a true statesman”.

“For me, he was, first of all, a friend, loyal and faithful, whom I could always count on,” said Bongo.

Abdulla Shahid, Adamo’s counterpart in the Maldives, offered his sympathies to the late minister’s family on Twitter, as well.