(Bissau) The Guinea-Bissau army called on Saturday the National Guard forces to return to their barracks the day after unrest which left at least two dead and which was condemned by the Economic Community of African States. West (Cedeao).
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.
Another military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity on Saturday due to the sensitivity of the situation, said six wounded soldiers had been evacuated to neighboring Senegal.
Calm returned mid-morning Friday with the announcement of the capture or surrender of the commander of the National Guard, Colonel Victor Tchongo.
On Saturday, the security system was reduced in Bissau, but soldiers were still visible around certain strategic buildings such as the presidential palace, the judicial police department and certain ministries, noted an AFP correspondent.
REUTERS PHOTO
Men are stationed in front of the Parliament building in Bissau.
Some officers and soldiers of the national guard have dispersed within the country, a press release from the Guinea-Bissau army revealed on Saturday without specifying their number. “The General Staff of the Armed Forces hereby informs them that they must return to their place of assignment,” he continued.
ECOWAS, in a press release published on Saturday, “strongly condemns the violence and all attempts aimed at disrupting the constitutional order and the rule of law in Guinea-Bissau”, calling “for the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators of the incident.”
It “expresses its full solidarity with the people and the constitutional authorities of Guinea-Bissau”.
On Friday, the UN called for respect for the rule of law and urged members of the security forces and armed forces “to continue to refrain from any interference in national politics”.
Judicial affair
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, according to officials of the army and intelligence.
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.
The National Guard responds mainly to the Ministry of the Interior, dominated – like the main ministries – by the historic PAIGC party after the victory of the coalition it led in the legislative elections in June 2023.
The two government members were recovered safely. They were detained again.
“We have always opted for law enforcement. A president who is elected must complete his mandate,” government spokesperson Francisco Muniro Conte of the PAIGC said on Saturday.
“We cannot obstruct people who are facing justice, if the law is really respected,” he added.
President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, elected in December 2019 for five years, was in Dubai to attend the 28e United Nations climate conference (COP28) at the time of the violence. He is due to return to Bissau on Saturday evening, according to his entourage.
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.