FILE - Guninea Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, poses for a photo, prior to the start of the ECOWAS meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, Sunday, Dec 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Olamikan Gbemiga, file)
Guinea-Bissau remained under firm military control on Thursday, November 27, after deposed President Umaro Sissoco Embalo fled to neighbouring Senegal following his detention by soldiers who seized power a day earlier.
Senegal’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that Embalo arrived in Dakar aboard a military aircraft chartered by the Senegalese government, after being released from the custody of the Guinean armed forces.
The dramatic turn of events followed the military takeover on Wednesday, November 26, when soldiers suspended the electoral process and detained Embalo just as provisional results from the presidential election held on Sunday, November 23, were about to be announced.
As Embalo exited the country, the army installed General Horta N’Tam, the chief of staff and a former close ally of the ousted president, as transitional leader for a one-year period. Horta N’Tam was sworn in on Thursday at military headquarters in Bissau, where he declared himself head of the High Command.
Opposition candidate Fernando Dias da Costa, who claims he won Sunday’s election with about 52 percent of the vote, accused Embalo of masterminding the entire operation to prevent his victory.
“There wasn’t a coup. It was organised by Mr Embalo,” Dias told AFP from hiding on Thursday, alleging that armed men stormed his campaign office on Wednesday in an attempt to arrest him.
In a bid to restore normalcy, the military authorities on Thursday lifted the nationwide curfew, reopened land and air borders, and ordered markets, schools and private businesses to resume operations.
The takeover has triggered swift international backlash. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has suspended Guinea-Bissau from all its decision-making bodies until constitutional order is restored. The African Union, United Nations, and the European Union have also condemned the seizure of power.
The latest upheaval marks the tenth military coup in Africa within the last five years and the fifth successful military takeover in Guinea-Bissau since the country gained independence from Portugal in 1974, underscoring its long history of political instability.