Clashes between two military factions broke out on Thursday night time after two authorities officers have been free of custody.
Gunfire and clashes that erupted within the capital of Guinea-Bissau this week have been an “attempted coup”, President Umaro Sissoco Embalo has stated.
Clashes between the National Guard and particular forces of the presidential guard broke out in Bissau on Thursday night time and continued on Friday after National Guard troopers freed two senior authorities officers who have been detained on a corruption investigation.
The unrest within the tiny West African nation left a minimum of two individuals useless.
Embalo, who was in Dubai attending the COP28 local weather convention, arrived in Bissau on Saturday and stated an “attempted coup d’etat” had prevented him from returning.
“I must tell you this act will have serious consequences,” he added.
Calm had returned by midday on Friday to the nation with a historical past of instability, following the announcement that the military had captured Colonel Victor Tchongo, the commander of the National Guard.
On Saturday, the safety presence in Bissau was lowered however troopers have been nonetheless seen round sure strategic buildings such because the presidential palace, the judicial police headquarters and a few ministries.
Some National Guard officers and troopers fled into the inside of the nation, the military stated in a press release on Saturday, with out specifying numbers.
ECOWAS condemns violence
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) stated it “strongly condemns the violence and all attempts to disrupt the constitutional order and rule of law in Guinea-Bissau”.
“ECOWAS further calls for the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators of the incident in accordance with the law,” the Abuja-based organisation added in its assertion on Saturday.
The regional bloc additionally expressed “its full solidarity with the people and constitutional authorities of Guinea-Bissau”.
A spokesman for United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, on Friday referred to as for calm and urged the safety forces and the military “to continue refraining from interference in national politics”.
Corruption allegations
The AFP information company, quoting navy and intelligence sources, stated members of the National Guard on Thursday stormed a police station to free Finance Minister Souleiman Seidi and Treasury Secretary Antonio Monteiro.
The duo had been taken in for questioning on Thursday morning in regards to the reported withdrawal of $10m from state coffers. They had been detained below orders of state prosecutors who’re named by the president.
They have been later detained once more after the military eliminated them from National Guard management.
The National Guard is below the management of the inside ministry, which, like most ministries within the nation, is dominated by the PAIGC occasion whose coalition gained the June 2023 elections.
There have been a minimum of 10 coups or tried coups in Guinea-Bissau since independence from Portugal in 1974, with just one democratically-elected president finishing a full time period in workplace.
Embalo, who was elected to a five-year time period in December 2019, survived a failed overthrow in February 2022.
West Africa has been hit by a number of navy takeovers over the previous three years, together with two in Mali, one in Guinea, two in Burkina Faso and one in Gabon.
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