Gabon coup: Rwanda’s Kagame sacks top military heads
A sit-tight African leader, Paul Kagame, has taken a decisive step shortly after military men took over power in Gabon. The Gabon coup has woken him up from his slumber as he fears he may lose his own job.
Kagame has spent at least two decades in office as the Rwandan president. H has compulsorily retired 12 generals from the army. He didn’t stop at that, the president also fired over 1,000 other top military personnel in the country.
The Rwanda Defence Force announced the decision to fire the generals and other echelons in the military. The RDF released a statement on Thursday indicating that the president had approved the retirement.
Part of the statement reads, “President Kagame has approved the retirement of a dozen generals, 83 senior officers and six junior officers.”
According to the statement, the president also approved retirement of 86 senior noncommissioned officers and at least 678 soldiers were retired after their contract ended while 160 others were discharged on medial grounds.”
The statement didn’t make reference to Gabon coup. But it’s not difficult to understand the motive behind the decision to reshuffle and restructure the military hierarchy.
However, the defence stated, “The move is followed by promotions of several young soldiers in the country’s security apparatus and appointments of new generals to head the army divisions stationed across the country.”
Kagame himself has spent 23 years in power. He is among the veterans in the continent. The Gabon coup may likely affect Cameroon, which shares a long boundary with the oil rich country.
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