GABON President Ali Bongo has promoted his defence minister, Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda, to prime minister, the first time a woman has held the role in the country. Ossouka Raponda, 56, is the sixth prime minister appointed since Bongo succeeded his father in 2009. Her first job is to form a new government after her predecessor, Julien Nkoghe Bekale, stepped down earlier in the day. She will take on two major challenges: declining oil production and prices, which have weighed on growth in recent years, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The Central African country has registered nearly 6,000 cases to date.…