Héric Libong was born in 1969 in Edea, Cameroon. After studies in journalism and a Bachelor of Philosophy at Paris VIII University, he worked as cultural columnist in newspapers and magazines in Paris. After attending the first International African Photography Encounters in Bamako, Mali, in 1994, Libong specialized in photography, and particularly in the evolution of photojournalism in Africa. For a time, from 1996 onwards, he lived between Paris and Dakar in Senegal, where together with a journalist colleague and a group of Senegalese photographers, he founded Dakar-Soir, a magazine devoted to photography. In 2001, Libong founded the photo department of Panapress news agency, and settled in Dakar, where the agency is headquartered. He currently heads a department which numbers some 40 photographers around the continent.
