The president who was ousted in the coup, Umaro Sissoco
Embalo, arrived in Senegal aboard a special flight following an
intervention by the West African regional bloc, Senegal’s
foreign ministry said in a statement late Thursday.
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.
self-styled “High Military Command for the Restoration of Order” announced in a televised statement on Wednesday that they had ousted Embalo. They said the move came in response to a destabilisation plan involving politicians and drug barons, without going into more detail.
Wearing a military uniform and flanked by other military
officials, Inta-a made his first public appearance as leader at
a ceremony broadcast Thursday on state television. He said the
coup was necessary to stave off a plot by “narcotraffickers” to
“capture Guinean democracy” and said the transition would last
one year, beginning immediately.
At a swearing-in ceremony later on Thursday, he named
Major-General Tomas Djassi as army chief of staff.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 vote.
Before the coup announcement, gunfire rang out in the
capital Bissau for about an hour on Wednesday near the electoral
commission headquarters and presidential palace.
