Angolan top cop sacked
2006-10-25 21:18
Luanda - Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos announced a major shake-up of security chiefs on Wednesday, sacking the national police commander and naming the chief of staff as new deputy defence minister.
The head of the country's air force was also being sidelined in the revamp, after being appointed as the new ambassador to neighbouring Zambia, said a statement from the president's office.
No reason was given for the dismissal of police commander Jose Alfredo, nor for a decision to shift General Agostinho Fernandes Nelumba, known as Sanjar, from the post of army chief of staff to number two in the defence ministry.
Francisco Pereira Furtado, the current head of general operations, was named as Nelumba's successor.
There was no immediate word on a replacement for Alfredo, known as Ekuiki, as national police chief.
Dos Santos said he wanted Furtado to see through a process of reforming the armed forces as they adapt to peacetime after the long-running civil war.
27-year civil war
"I ask that you ensure the army is able to adapt to the demands of peace and implement the reorganisation of the FAA (Angolan Armed Forces) in order to strengthen our vigilance and national defence," he said in brief comments at a swearing-in ceremony for Furtado in the capital Luanda.
For his part, the new chief of staff pledged at the ceremony to "guarantee the impregnability of the country's borders."
A 27-year civil war that claimed 500 000 lives and devastated Angola's economy finally ended in 2002.
Despite the end of the conflict, defence spending continues to account for around 13% of the overall $25bn budget.
Dos Santos has been in power since 1979, but he is still to announce whether he seek re-election next year in the first scheduled elections since the end of the civil war.