Guinea-Bissau army general named president after apparent coup

An army general has been sworn in as Guinea-Bissau’s new head of state, a day after an apparent coup.

General Horta N’Tam becomes transitional president for a period of one year. He was sworn in Thursday, during a brief and silent debate at army headquarters.

The army had already suspended the electoral process and blocked the publication of the results of Sunday’s presidential election, expected on Thursday.

Some civil society groups in Guinea-Bissau have accused incumbent President Umaro Sissoco Embaló of staging a “simulated coup” against himself with the help of the military, saying it was a ruse to prevent the publication of election results in the event of defeat.

“This maneuver aims to prevent the publication of the electoral results scheduled for tomorrow, November 27,” the Popular Front civil society coalition said in a statement on Wednesday.

The president has not responded to the allegations.

He said he survived several coup attempts during his term. However, his critics have already accused him of manufacturing crises in order to suppress dissent.

Sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea, the West African country is known as a notorious drug trafficking hub where the military has held influence since its independence from Portugal in 1974.

Guinea-Bissau has experienced at least nine coups or attempted coups over the past five decades.

The latest, on Wednesday, saw a group of military officers announce they had taken control of the country, following reports that President Embaló had been arrested.

Gunshots were heard in the capital, Bissau, but it was not immediately clear who was involved in the shooting or whether there were any casualties.

Police officers later appeared on state television, saying they had suspended the election process.

They said they were acting to thwart a plot by unnamed politicians with the “backing of a well-known drug lord” to destabilize the country, and announced the closure of its borders and imposed a nighttime curfew.

Election results were expected 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.

On Wednesday afternoon, Embaló told France 24 in a phone call: “I have been dismissed.”

Government sources later told the BBC that Dias, Pereira and Interior Minister Botché Candé were also arrested.

The same sources indicated that the putschists had also arrested the head of the army, General Biague Na Ntan, as well as his deputy, General Mamadou Touré.

In a joint statement, the heads of the electoral observation missions of the African Union and the West African bloc of ECOWAS expressed their “deep concern at the announcement of a coup d’état by the armed forces”.

They said the country had prepared for the announcement of the election results after what they described as an “orderly and peaceful” process.

“It is regrettable that this announcement came at a time when the missions had just finished their meeting with the two main presidential candidates, who assured us of their willingness to accept the will of the people,” they said.

Portugal, the country’s former colonial ruler, has called for a return to constitutional order, with its foreign ministry calling on “all those involved to refrain from any acts of institutional or civic violence.”

On Thursday, the AFP news agency reported that Guinea-Bissau’s borders had been reopened.

Embaló, 53, wanted to make history as the country’s only president to win a second consecutive term in the last 30 years.

He initially said he would not seek a second term. Before the vote was postponed, his legitimacy was in question, with the opposition saying his term should have officially ended in February 2025.

Guinea-Bissau is one of the poorest countries in the world with a population of more than two million people.

Its coastline has many uninhabited islands, making it ideal for drug traffickers – with the UN labeling it a “narco-state” because it has been a key transit point for cocaine from Latin America to Europe.

Additional reporting by Richard Kagoe