Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: A group of military officers say they have seized control of Guinea-Bissau amid reports that the president, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, has been arrested. Shortly after gunshots were heard in the capital, Bissau, government sources told the BBC that Embaló had been detained.
The officers then appeared on state TV, saying they had suspended the electoral process, as the West African nation awaited the outcome of the November 23 presidential election. The results are expected on November 27. They said they were acting to thwart a plot by unnamed politicians who had “the support of a well-known drug baron” to destabilise the country, and announced the closure of its borders and imposed a night-time curfew.
Sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea, the coup-prone country is known as a notorious drug-trafficking hub where the military has been influential since independence from Portugal in 1974.
Both Embaló and his closest rival Fernando Dias have claimed victory. Dias was supported by former Prime Minister Domingos Pereira, who had been disqualified from running. On November 26, Embaló told France 24 in a phone call: “I have been deposed.”
Government sources have since told the BBC that Dias, Pereira and Interior Minister Botché Candé have also been detained. The putschists have taken army chief Gen Biague Na Ntan and his deputy, Gen Mamadou Touré, into custody too, the sources say.
General Denis N’Canha, head of the military household at the presidential palace, read out a statement declaring a takeover. He said officers had formed “the High Military Command for the Restoration of Order” and instructed the population to “remain calm”.
