Guinea-Bissau: President Embalo denounces an attempted coup

“I was in Dubai where I took part in COP 28. I could not return because of the attempted coup. I want to tell you that this act will have serious consequences,” declared President Umaro Sissoco Embalo to the press upon his return to Bissau.

 “There were clues; we will show them to you. This coup d'état was prepared before November 16 (the date of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the armed forces, Editor's note),” he continued.

Clashes between elements of the National Guard holed up in a barracks in the south of the capital Bissau, and the special forces of the Presidential Guard, broke out during the night from Thursday to Friday, leaving at least two dead according to a military official.

Calm returned mid-morning Friday with the announcement of the capture or surrender of the commander of the National Guard, Colonel Victor Tchongo.

Chronic political instability

Elements of the National Guard burst into the premises of the judicial police on Thursday evening to extract the Minister of Economy and Finance, Souleiman Seidi, and the Secretary of State for the Public Treasury, Antonio Monteiro.

The two members of the government were questioned by the judicial police, on the instructions of the attorney general appointed by the president, regarding a withdrawal of ten million dollars from the state coffers.

“Colonel Tchongo is not crazy. He was sent by someone to enter the PJ facilities to exfiltrate Souleiman Seidi. The empire of laws must function. The attorney general is the lawyer of the state,” said President Umaro Sissoco Embalo. 

The president then announced that a commission of inquiry would be formed on Monday. “We are not organizing a coup d'état against the President of the National Assembly, even less against a Prime Minister, but against the President of the Republic, Commander-in-Chief of the Armies,” he asserted.

Guinea-Bissau suffers from chronic political instability and has experienced a string of coups since its independence from Portugal in 1974, the last in February 2022.

@RFI, Le Figaro