Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo conducts a press conference during his state visit to South Africa at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on April 28, 2022. Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embalo on December 2, 2023 said deadly violence involving members of the National Guard was an “attempted coup” as the army ordered them back to barracks. (Photo by Phill Magakoe / AFP)
Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Embalo says he was arrested while he was inside the presidential palace today.
Also arrested are the chief of staff, General Biague Na Ntan, deputy chief of staff General Mamadou Traore, and the interior minister, Botche Cande.
According to the president, no force was used against him during what he says was a ‘coup d’etat,’ which he says was led by the army chief of staff.
Reporters on the ground say they heard gunfire at the National Electoral Commission headquarters and in the surrounding areas.
The country has been awaiting results from Sunday’s presidential election which President Embalo had said he won 65 per cent of the votes cast.
Embalo’s camp and that of opposition candidate Fernando Dias de Costa have claimed first-round victory in the November 23 presidential election.
Military Takeover
Military officers in Guinea-Bissau announced Wednesday they were taking “total control” of the country, the AFP reported.
The officers also suspended the country’s electoral process and closed its borders, three days after the poverty-stricken West African nation’s legislative and presidential elections.
In the early afternoon, General Denis N’Canha, head of the presidential military office, told members of the press that a command “composed of all branches of the armed forces, was taking over the leadership of the country until further notice”.
He read the announcement seated at a table and surrounded by armed soldiers.
The tumultuous West African country has experienced four coups since independence, as well as multiple attempted coups.
N’Canha, in his declaration, claimed to have uncovered a plan to destabilise the country “involving national drug lords” that had included “the introduction of weapons into the country to alter the constitutional order”.
In addition to halting “the entire electoral process”, he said military forces had suspended “all media programming” and imposed a mandatory curfew.
Guinea-Bissau is among the world’s poorest countries and is also a hub for drug trafficking between Latin America and Europe, a trade facilitated by the country’s long history of political instability.
