Guinea Bissau’s president says ‘many killed’ during attempted coup

Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embalo said many members of the security forces had been killed during an attempted coup Tuesday, without providing specific figures.

Speaking to the press, Embalo said the shootings lasted five hours and security personnel were among the many dead.

Earlier reports had said the president’s whereabouts were unknown, but he clarified that he was at the presidential palace.

Embalo described the coup attempt as an attack against democracy, attributing it to “the work of isolated elements.”

He added that some military personnel involved in the attack had been detained.

-Situation ‘under government control’

The situation in Guinea-Bissau is “under government control,” said Embalo.

In a tweet, he said he was “fine” and thanked the people of Guinea-Bissau and the rest of the world for their concern.

“The situation is under government control…Long live the Republic and may God watch over Guinea-Bissau,” he said.

Heavy gunfire was heard near the presidential palace in the capital Bissau earlier in the day, leading to reports of a coup attempt in a country with a history of military takeovers.

Media reports did not clarify whether the attackers were members of the security forces but said that Embalo and Prime Minister Nuno Gomes Nabiam were holding a Cabinet meeting in the building at the time.

Several people were wounded and the attackers wore civilian clothes, the local Ditadura newspaper reported.

Soldiers in military vehicles drove through the streets of the capital and some were deployed around government buildings, it added.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a 15-nation West African regional bloc, called the violence a “coup attempt” and said it “holds the military responsible for the bodily integrity of President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and the members of his government.”

Three countries in West Africa – Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso – have witnessed military coups over the last 18 months.

-UN, African Union condemn coup attempt

Meanwhile, the African Union expressed concern over the attempted coup and called on the country’s military to free detained government members.

“The chairman of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, follows with deep concern the situation in Guinea-Bissau, marked by an attempted coup against the country’s government,” it said in a statement.

“He calls on the military to return to their barracks without delay and to ensure the physical safety of President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and members of his government and to immediately release those of them who are in detention.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also said he was deeply concerned with the situation in Guinea-Bissau.

He called for an immediate end to the fighting and for full respect of the country’s democratic institutions, his deputy spokesman, Farhan Haq, said in a statement.

Tuesday’s violence came days after Embalo reshuffled his Cabinet, a decision initially challenged by Nabiam’s party.

Relations between the president and the Nabiam-led government have reportedly been tense in recent months.

Guinea-Bissau has had nine coups and attempted coups since its independence from Portugal in 1974.

For more than four decades, no elected head of state had finished a five-year term until Jose Mario Vaz saw out his full tenure in June 2019.

In 2009, then-President Joao Bernardo Vieira was assassinated in what was said to be an apparent revenge attack by soldiers for the killing of the country’s then-army chief, who was at odds with Vieira.