GABON CLAIMS NIGER DELTA MILITANTS IN SAO TOME

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 LIBREVILLE 000256 SIPDIS AF/C PLEASE ALSO PASS MALABO AND BANGUI E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/28/2019 TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL MARR SNAR GB TP NI SUBJECT: GABON CLAIMS NIGER DELTA MILITANTS IN SAO TOME Classified By: Political Officer Christopher Gunning for reasons 1.4 (b ) and (d). -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) Gabon's defense minister claims that a senior official in Sao Tome and Principe (STP) recently told him that militants from Nigeria's Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) have infiltrated the Portuguese-speaking island nation off Nigeria's coast. Meanwhile, in Gabon, officials searched a small island near Libreville for material they suspected had been delivered for MEND operatives in Gabon. They found nothing. End Summary. -------------- MEND in Sao Tome? -------------- ¶2. (C) Gabonese Defense Minister Ali Bongo Ondimba told the Ambassador May 30 that a senior official from the Portuguese-speaking nation of STP recently reported that the island of Principe has been infiltrated by MEND militants. Principe is in the Gulf of Guinea, about 150 miles off the coast of Nigeria. According to Bongo, STP Minister for Internal Security Raul Cravid said that Principe is a staging point for MEND activities and "we can't do anything with them." Bongo reported that STP officials are also concerned about weapons and drug smuggling. We had been aware of STP concerns over smuggling, but senior officials including Cravid have not raised the specter of MEND with us before. The Ambassador spoke to Bongo in the course of a wide-ranging discussion reported septels. -------------- Search of an Island Near Libreville -------------- ¶3. (C) On May 15, senior officials of Gabon's paramilitary Gendarmerie led a search of a small island north of Libreville, apparently investigating reports of MEND-related arms trafficking. A local employee of the Embassy's RSO office met the officials by chance when he was in the area on other business. One senior official told our colleague that his men were searching for "boxes" of material allegedly associated with MEND. No "boxes" or weapons were found. The area searched is inhabited by Nigerian immigrants, many of them in Gabon illegally. ¶4. (C) The Gendarmerie officer added that he hoped to search another nearby site, Nende Island, soon. Coincidentally, our defense attache was on the island the same day, scouting a possible location for a joint U.S.-Gabonese radar facility. Nende Island is also inhabited by about 150 Nigerians whose primary occupation is fishing. -------------- - Gabon Sees Illegal Nigerians as Growing Threat -------------- - ¶5. (S) At least twice in the past year, the Embassy has provided Gabonese officials with tearline information on possible MEND activity here. Senior Gabonese intel officials subsequently claimed the information we provided was consistent with other information the Gabonese developed independently from local fishermen and other sources. One official also claimed that Gabon has sources "in Nigeria" who report some targeting of Gabon. Quite apart from MEND, however, Gabonese security officials report growing concern over the activity of Nigerian criminal elements in Gabon. Rightly or wrongly, for instance, Gabonese officials assert that Nigerians dominate the growing drug trade. ¶6. (C) Gabon's concerns come against a backdrop of numerous incidents in the region ascribed to Niger Delta militants. These incidents include attacks in 2008 and 2009 in Cameroon and attacks in 2007 and 2009 in Equatorial Guinea. Gabon, already concerned about the security threat posed by illegal Nigerians, is giving these issues greater attention. To help secure Gabonese land and maritime borders, the Gabonese Government is working both independently and in conjunction with the Economic Community of Central African States (CEEAC in its French acronym). -------------- Comment -------------- ¶7. (C) We are unable to verify the claim of a MEND presence in the island of Principe. The small and sparsely populated LIBREVILLE 00000256 002 OF 002 island is remote even from neighboring Sao Tome. It has numerous small coves, no regular air service, and only sproadic public boat transport to Sao Tome. However, the Gabonese concerns strike us a genuine. For Gabon, like others in the region, Nigerian threats including MEND are a growing preoccupation -- and a convienant scapegoat. End Comment. REDDICK