Guinea-Bissau’s military said it installed General Horta Nta Na Man as transitional president on Thursday, a day after soldiers toppled the civilian leadership in a swift power grab that followed a fiercely contested presidential vote.
It was the ninth coup in West and Central Africa in five years and continued a pattern of instability in Guinea-Bissau, a notorious cocaine transport hub with a long history of military interventions in politics.
The self-styled “High Military Command for the Restoration of Order” announced in a televised statement on Wednesday that they had ousted President Umaro Sissoco Embalo. They said the move came in response to a destabilisation plan involving politicians and drug barons, without going into more detail.
The army said Nta would serve for one year, Radio France Internationale reported. Video on state media showed Nta, wearing a military uniform, raising his right hand to be sworn in during a ceremony attended by other military officials.
The takeover came a day before provisional results were due to be announced in the race between Embalo and Fernando Dias, a 47-year-old political newcomer who had emerged as Embalo’s top challenger in the presidential race.
Ahead of the coup announcement, witnesses said gunfire rang out in the capital Bissau for about an hour near the electoral commission headquarters and presidential palace.
Embalo called French media to say he had been deposed. The officers did not say if they had taken Embalo into custody, and there were no announcements about his whereabouts on Thursday.
African Union chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf condemned the coup in a statement on social media, and called for the immediate and unconditional release of Embalo “and all detained officials.”
Heads of state from the West African regional bloc ECOWAS also condemned the coup and voiced concern over the reported arrests of Embalo, senior officials and electoral personnel.
Central Bissau was mostly quiet on Thursday, with soldiers on the streets and many residents staying indoors, even after the overnight curfew lifted. Businesses and banks were closed.
“I’m very concerned about the prevailing situation,” Julio Goncalves, a 30-year-old professor and Bissau resident, said.
“No pharmacy is open. If somebody is sick how can he buy medicine or go to the hospital?”
‘FALSE COUP ATTEMPT’
Before Nta’s presidency was announced, Dias accused Embalo in a video statement of staging a “false coup attempt” to derail the election because he feared he would lose.
In a statement to Reuters on Thursday, the coalition backing Dias demanded that authorities be allowed to release results from Sunday’s presidential election.
The coalition also called for the release of former Prime Minister Domingos Simoes Pereira, defeated by Embalo in the 2019 election. He was detained on Wednesday, according to relatives and security sources.
Security forces used tear gas to break up a small protest outside the building where Pereira is said to have been detained, a Reuters witness said.
They also broke up a gathering near Dias’s home on the outskirts of Bissau, and two witnesses told Reuters that live rounds were fired.
There were no reports of casualties related to the violence on Wednesday or Thursday.
COUP-PRONE NARCOTICS HUB
Guinea-Bissau is a small coastal nation between Senegal and Guinea that is a transit point for cocaine heading from South America to Europe. Under Embalo’s administration, the cocaine trade appeared to boom.
Another coup is unlikely to change that, said Lucia Bird Ruiz-Benitez de Lugo, director of the Observatory of Illicit Economies in West Africa, which tracks the cocaine trade.
“Major traffickers financed electoral campaigns in these elections. There is no sign the impact of cocaine on politics and governance in Bissau will decrease,” Bird said.
The country has been shaken by at least nine coups and attempted coups between 1974, when it gained independence from Portugal, and 2020, when Embalo took office.
Dias had campaigned partly on the promise of getting the military to stop intervening in politics.
Embalo has said he has survived three coup attempts during his time in office. His critics have accused him of manufacturing crises as an excuse for crackdowns.
ELECTION OBSERVERS UNACCOUNTED FOR
Election observers from the African Union and ECOWAS issued a joint statement on Wednesday night expressing “deep concern” over the coup announcement. They said officials in charge of the electoral process had been arrested and called for their immediate release.
Nigerian former President Goodluck Jonathan, who had been observing the vote as part of the West African Elders Forum, was not reachable on Thursday, Joel Ahofodji, an ECOWAS spokesperson, told Reuters.
“I wouldn’t say that he (Goodluck Jonathan) and others are trapped in Guinea-Bissau, but we don’t know his whereabouts,” Ahofodji said.
Nigeria’s foreign ministry expressed “profound dismay” over “this act of military insurrection” and said the safety of election observers should be guaranteed.
“We warn that those behind this act will be held accountable for their actions,” a statement said.
