In a statement read on state television by Spokesperson, Diniz N’Tchama, the army officers said they had ousted President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, suspended the electoral process, shut borders and would enforce a curfew.
Shortly after, Embalo told France 24 TV: “I have been deposed.”
The army officers said in their statement that they had formed “The High Military Command for the Restoration of Order” and would be in charge of the West African nation until further notice.
The officers did not specify if they had taken Embalo into custody. Two security sources told Reuters that he was being held at the office of the army chief of staff.
In a video statement distributed by his campaign late Wednesday, Fernando Dias, Embalo’s top challenger in the election, said he was free and in a safe place after armed men tried to take him into custody. Dias said former Prime Minister Domingos Simoes Pereira, who Embalo defeated in the 2019 election, had been detained.
“We have been the target of a false coup attempt for the simple reason that I won the elections. This is a simulation,” he said.
The African Union and West African regional bloc, in a joint statement on Wednesday night expressing “deep concern” over the coup announcement, said officials in charge of the electoral process had also been arrested and called for their immediate release.
It was the latest outbreak of unrest in Guinea-Bissau, a small coastal nation situated between Senegal and Guinea that is a notorious hub for cocaine bound for Europe.
It was not immediately clear whether the army had the support of all of Guinea-Bissau’s fractious armed forces or whether they were in control of all of the country of around 2 million people.
–Reuters–
