By Our Reporter
WORLD
A group of military officers say they have seized control of Guinea-Bissau amid reports that the president, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, has been arrested.
Shortly after gunshots were heard in the capital, Bissau, government sources told the BBC that Embaló had been detained.
The officers then appeared on state TV, saying they had suspended the electoral process, as the West African nation awaited the outcome of Sunday’s presidential election.
They said they were acting to thwart a plot by unnamed politicians who had “the support of a well-known drug baron” to destabilise the country, and announced the closure of its borders and imposed a night-time curfew.
Sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea, the coup-prone country is known as a notorious drug-trafficking hub where the military has been influential since independence from Portugal in 1974.
The election results were expected on Thursday – both Embaló and his closest rival Fernando Dias had claimed victory.
Dias was supported by former Prime Minister Domingos Pereira, who had been disqualified from running.
Late on Wednesday afternoon, Embaló told France 24 in a phone call: “I have been deposed.”
Government sources have since told the BBC that Dias, Pereira and Interior Minister Botché Candé have also been detained.
The putschists have taken army chief Gen Biague Na Ntan and his deputy, Gen Mamadou Touré, into custody too, the sources say.
In a joint statement, leaders of election observation missions from the African Union and the West African bloc Ecowas expressed “deep concern with the announcement of a coup d’etat by the armed forces”.
They said the country had been prepared for the announcement of the election results after what it described as an “orderly and peaceful” process.
“It’s regrettable that this announcement came at a time when the missions had just concluded meeting with the two leading presidential candidates, who assured us of their willingness to accept the will of the people,” they said.
n the latest military coup to be added to Africa’s infamous record as “the Continent of Coups”, army officers in Guinea-Bissau declared “full control” over the country today, just three days after the highly disputed presidential election on 23 November.
President Umaro Sissoco Embaló (in power since 2020) was detained “without violence”, according to the coup leader, Chief of General Staff Bartolomeu Biague Na N’Tan, who also arrested General Mamadu Touré and Interior Minister Botche Candé.
Immediate measures:
Borders and the airport closed
Electoral process suspended
National Electoral Commission seized
