A Gabonese journalist on the country's only national paper said Wednesday he had received death threats over articles that questioned the official death toll in recent post-election violence.

Jonas Moulenda, from daily paper L'Union, also said his flat was searched and some of his belongings stolen by unidentified men as soldiers stood guard.

The disclosure came several days after the editor of the paper was arrested over the investigation, which accused the government of killing people in a crackdown in Port-Gentil following the election.

The government denies its forces were behind any deaths during the unrest.

Moulenda told AFP he had been receiving "threats in the form of anonymous phone calls for three weeks" and no longer dared to sleep at home.

He added the situation "took a worrying turn since my return from Port-Gentil", where violence erupted on September 3 after the disputed victory in the presidential election of Ali Bongo Ondimba.

"They said to me: 'You'll see, they are going to find you like Norbert Zongo (a journalist from Burkina Faso murdered in 1998)', 'They are going to find you in the gutter', 'If you think you are the best journalist in Gabon, keep going, you'll see'," Moulenda said.

L'Union recently published a series of articles by Moulenda about post-election unrest at the start of this month in the southwestern oil city of Port-Gentil following Ali Bongo's victory.

The vote in Gabon was triggered by the death in June of Ali Bongo's father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, after 41 years ruling the west African country.

Moulenda's investigation cast doubt on the official toll of three deaths. The articles said there were five deaths, adding that  "the number of victims could be 22 people".

His reports further said at least three people were shot dead by security forces, something the government has always denied.

A group of opposition parties has said there were five deaths in Port-Gentil, which is Gabon's second city, with a sixth person killed later by security forces.

On Saturday, unidentified people also carried out a search of Moulenda's flat and made off with several items including his notebook with names and numbers in it, the journalist said.

Three people arrived at Moulenda's flat in the Ozangue district of Libreville, the journalist said, and demanded to know where he was sleeping.   They then carried out a search and stole his belongings as soldiers stood at the doorway of the property.

Moulenda said was not there as he had gone into hiding following the threats.

The search of the journalist's flat came a day after the editor of L'Union, Albert Yangari, was arrested and questioned over the reports.

Yangari was detained on Friday by elite troops near the newspaper offices, and released the same day after being questioned about articles in his paper, he said.

--Sapa--