Angola president fires army chief and spy boss - State radio

Angola president Joao Lourenco on Monday fired over twenty officials including two security chiefs in a presidential decree announced on national radio, Portugal RTP.

The two affected officers are Army Chief General Geraldo Sachipengo Nunda and foreign intelligence chief André de Oliveira Sango. Reports indicate that about twenty other officials were affected by the latest purge.

The head of the armed forces before his sacking, was named by prosecutors last month as a suspect in an investigation of a scheme to negotiate a fraudulent international credit line of $50 billion.

He was named along with son of the former president Jose Filomeno dos Santos and a former governor of the central bank, Valter Filipe da Silva.

Oliviera Sango, the now former spy boss, a long-time Dos Santos loyalist, was made foreign intelligence chief over a decade ago.

Political and security watchers say the latest purge by Lourenco is a continued effort to assert his power in the security sector of the oil-rich southern African nation.

The firing of the army chief also dovetails into his tough stance against corruption and graft since coming into office in September 2016. He took over the reigns from dos Santos, who had served close to four decades as president.

His anti-corruption crackdown has affected two of his predecessor’s children. Isabel dos Santos was fired as head of the state oil firm, Sonangol whiles Jose Filomeno has also lost his job as head of Angola’s sovereign fund. Both are currently under probe in corruption related cases.

Isabel, Africa’s richest woman, has denied all the allegations made against her whiles Filomeno last said he was cooperating with the prosecutors on his case.