GABON: RESHUFFLE OF SECURITY POSTS MAY STACK THE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LIBREVILLE 000574 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/05/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL MARR GB SUBJECT: GABON: RESHUFFLE OF SECURITY POSTS MAY STACK THE DECK FOR THE PRESIDENT'S SON REF: LIBREVILLE 0545 Classified By: DCM Nathan Holt for reasons 1.4(b) and (d). -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) In a move that caught some senior military officers by surprise, Gabonese President El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba has carried out a wide-ranging reshuffle of senior military and security posts. Though many of the changes were routine, the breadth of the shakeup appears unprecedented, at least in recent years. And while carried out with the president's customary finesse and attention to regional and ethnic balance, the changes overall appear to leave the president's son, Defense Minister Ali Bongo Ondimba, with an ever-firmer grip on Gabon's security apparatus. END SUMMARY. -------------- Out with the Old . . . -------------- ¶2. (C) The November 28 shakeup gives GABON a new chief of staff for the armed forces, a new head of the mixed police/paramilitary gendarmerie, and a new chief naval officer. In all, about three dozen senior officers were shuffled in or out of senior positions in the presidency, the defense ministry, the ministry of foreign affairs, the armed forces and the gendarmerie. ¶3. (C) Gen. Jean Claude Ella-Ekogha takes the helm as chief of staff of Gabon's armed forces (incorporating the army, navy and air force, but distinct from the gendarmerie and the elite Republican Guard). Ella-Ekogha had served previously as army chief of staff and in the office of Minister of Defense Ali Bongo. He also led a multinational peacekeeping force in the Central African Republic. Ella-Ekogha replaces outgoing General Jean Ntori Longho, the longest-serving officer in the Gabonese Army. Ntori Longho told the DCM at the ceremony marking the handover of command that he would move into a quasi-retirement status and seemed visibly delighted with the prospect. ¶4. (C) Nevertheless, Ntori Longho's departure and that of other senior officers appears to mark more than simple generational change. At the gendarmerie, long-serving Gen. Honore Olery will also become a semi-retired "advisor" on security issues, with command passing to his former deputy General Abel Sougou. Gabon's new navy chief is Admiral Herve Nambo Ndouany, who like many others in the new crop of officers is viewed as closer to Minister of Defense Ali Bongo. -------------- Ali Bongo Consolidates Influence -------------- ¶5. (C) The latest reshuffle is the largest since Ali Bongo became Defense Minister in 1999, and appears to mark another step forward in what many see as the consolidation of his influence over Gabon's security forces. Ali Bongo appears to have marginalized rivals like retired General Idriss Ngari, who currently wields little power as Minister of Tourism and National Parks. Senior Gabonese officials also note that Ali Bongo's influence extends over all three of Gabon's main security structures--the armed forces, the gendarmerie and the Republican Guard. President Bongo had previously encouraged a degree of rivalry among these forces, and has never allowed a single individual to exercise this degree of power over them. ¶6. (C) Ali Bongo has likewise continued an aggressive campaign to improve pay, benefits and living conditions for security forces despite tight budgets and opposition from some in government. His brother-in-law and rival in behind-the-scenes maneuvering to succeed President Bongo, Foreign Minister Paul Toungui, has less ability to affect Ministry of Defense budgets since his October 2008 transfer from the Ministry of Finance. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶7. (C) Although President Bongo appears to have fully recovered from his collapse and brief loss of consciousness in early November (reftel),the question of who might succeed him and when is now even more central for key political players and the population at large. The president's son Ali is playing hardest and most publicly to position himself as the apparent successor. The latest changes at the top of various security forces, while carefully calibrated to LIBREVILLE 00000574 002 OF 002 include ethnic and regional balance, also appear to be carefully calibrated to advance Ali Bongo's agenda. End Comment. REDDICK