Military officers in Guinea-Bissau declared on Wednesday that they had seized “total control” of the country in an apparent coup d’état, as the nation awaited official results from Sunday’s presidential and legislative elections.
In a statement broadcast on state television from the army general staff headquarters, the self-styled High Military Command for the Restoration of National Security and Public Order announced the suspension of the electoral process and the closure of all borders.
The takeover followed reports of gunfire near the presidential palace in the capital, Bissau, earlier in the day, with President Umaro Sissoco Embaló later confirming his arrest at the site without violence.
Incumbent President Umaro Sissoco Embaló revealed in an interview with Jeune Afrique that he was arrested on Wednesday, November 26, around 1 p.m. while working in his office at the presidential palace, without any violence directed at him personally.
He disclosed that the Armed Forces Chief of Staff, General Biague Na Ntan, his deputy General Mamadou Touré, and Interior Minister Botché Candé were detained alongside him during the incident, which he explicitly labeled a coup d’état.
The events unfolded just days after Guinea-Bissau’s presidential and legislative elections on November 23, where both Embaló and opposition challenger Fernando Dias da Costa prematurely claimed victory, though official provisional results were slated for release on Thursday, November 27.
This latest unrest occurred less than a month after the October 31 arrest of senior army officers accused of plotting a coup ahead of the polls.
Since gaining independence from Portugal in 1973, the West African nation has endured four successful coups along with numerous failed attempts, underscoring its chronic political instability.
Source : Myxyzonline/Africanews
