WORLD POLICE AND PARAMILITARY FORCES The Gabonese police forces are organized on French lines. They are the National Police Forces (Forces Nationales de GABON Police), comparable to the French Police Nationale, with Republique Gabonaise about 1000 men, and the paramilitary Gendarmerie Nation­ ale Gabonaise, which is commanded by French officers and has some 1700 men.The Forces Nationales de Police Area: 267,667 sq. km comprise the National Security Police (Surete Nationale) and Population: 1,292,000 the Judiciary Police (Police Judiciaire). Capital: Libreville The Gendarmerie consists of three Brigades, subdivided into Companies: Eastern (Mouanda Company), Northern Head of State: Omar Bongo (President) (Libreville, Makokou and Oyem Companies) and Southern Prime Minister: Leon Mebiame (Lambarene, Mouila, Port Gentil and Tchibanga Com­ panies). There is a training school (Ecole Nationale de Gabon comprises nine provinces (capitals in brackets): Gendarmerie) at Owendo. In common with most African countries, Gabon is a one-party state, ruled by the Gabonese Democratic Party Estuaire (Libreville) Ogooue-Ivindo (Makokou) (Parti Democratique Gabonais, PDG). Unlike other coun­ Haut-Ogooue Ogooue-Lolo tries, it is fairly stable and has very few internal security (Franceville) (Koulamoutou) problems. The Gendarmerie is trained for riot control duties, Moyen-Ogooue Ogooue-Maritime in case such an emergency arises. (Lambarene) (Omboue) Ngounie (Mouila) Woleu-Ntem (Oyem) Direction de la Surete Nationale, BOlte Postale 2233, Nyanga (Tchibanga) Libreville 74 J. Andrade, World Police & Paramilitary Forces © Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 1985.