The Economic Community of West African States has denounced an “attempted coup”. The president must speak in the evening, assures his cabinet.
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Armed men exchanged heavy fire in the sector of the Guinea-Bissau government palace on Tuesday, February 1, where the head of state was presumed to be. The situation remained very confused at the start of the evening in the capital of this West African country with a troubled political history.
The President of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, finally spoke in the evening, in front of the press. “The assailants could have spoken to me before these bloody events which caused several serious injuries and deaths”, he said, referring to this coup. He did not clearly designate the perpetrators, but he believes that this taking up of arms follows the “decisions (he has) taken, in particular the fight against drug trafficking and corruption”.
According to various testimonies, armed men entered in the early afternoon the complex of the government palace, which houses the various ministries on the outskirts of the capital, near the airport, and where a Council of Extraordinary Ministers in the presence of President and Prime Minister Nuno Gomes Nabiam. Testimonies presented these men as soldiers, others as civilians.
Heavy gunfire was then heard for much of the afternoon. The surroundings of the palace were plagued by movements of inhabitants fleeing the premises. Markets emptied and banks closed. Heavily armed men surrounded the compound, where the president and ministers were believed to be pinned down, with it unclear whether the men were mutineers or forces loyal to power. An AFP correspondent reported that an armed man had ordered him to move away by aiming at him.
It is a new coup attempt in West Africa. “ECOWAS condemns this coup attempt and holds the military responsible for the physical integrity of President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and members of his government”, the Economic Community of West African States said in a statement posted on social media. The same goes for the African Union, whose President of the Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, “Follows with great concern the situation in Guinea-Bissau, marked by an attempted coup against the country’s government”according to a press release.