Guinea-Bissau’s army has installed a senior general as transitional head of state, a day after military officers announced they had seized power and halted the release of presidential election results.
Gen Horta N’Tam was sworn in on Thursday at army headquarters in a brief, low-key ceremony. He will serve as transitional president for one year, according to the military authorities.
The coup leaders had already suspended the electoral process and blocked the publication of results from Sunday’s presidential vote, which had been due on Thursday. Both incumbent President Umaro Sissoco Embaló and his main challenger, Fernando Dias, had claimed victory.
A coalition of civil society groups, the Popular Front, accused Embaló of staging a “simulated coup” against himself with the support of segments of the armed forces, alleging the move was designed to prevent the release of results in case he lost.
“This manoeuvre aims to prevent the publication of the electoral results scheduled for tomorrow, 27 November,” the group said in a statement on Wednesday. Embaló has not publicly responded to the allegation. His critics have previously accused him of inflating or fabricating crises as a pretext to clamp down on dissent, while he insists he has survived multiple genuine coup attempts.
Guinea-Bissau, wedged between Senegal and Guinea on West Africa’s Atlantic coast, has a long history of instability and is widely regarded as a hub for cocaine trafficking from Latin America to Europe. Since independence from Portugal in 1974, the country has experienced at least nine coups or attempted coups, with the military retaining significant political influence.
On Wednesday, gunfire was heard in the capital Bissau near the presidential palace, though it was not immediately clear who was involved or whether there were casualties. Later, a group of officers appeared on state television to announce they had taken control, suspended the electoral process, closed borders and imposed a night-time curfew.
They said they acted to foil a plot by unnamed politicians allegedly backed by a “well-known drug baron” to destabilise the country.
In a phone interview with French broadcaster France 24 earlier on Wednesday, Embaló said: “I have been deposed.” Government sources later told the BBC that Dias, his political ally former Prime Minister Domingos Pereira, and Interior Minister Botché Candé had been detained. The same sources said the putschists had also arrested army chief Gen Biague Na Ntan and his deputy, Gen Mamadou Touré.
In a joint statement, heads of election observer missions from the African Union and West African bloc ECOWAS voiced “deep concern” over the military’s actions. They described Sunday’s polls as “orderly and peaceful” and said both leading candidates had assured them they would accept the results.
“It is regrettable that this announcement came at a time when the missions had just concluded meeting with the two leading presidential candidates, who assured us of their willingness to accept the will of the people,” they said.
Portugal, the former colonial power, called for a swift return to constitutional order and urged all actors to avoid institutional or civic violence. By Thursday, AFP reported that the country’s borders had been reopened.
Embaló, 53, had hoped to become the first leader in three decades to secure a second consecutive term. He initially pledged not to run again, and opposition parties argued his mandate should have ended in February 2025, questioning the legitimacy of the delayed election.
Guinea-Bissau, home to just over two million people, is among the world’s poorest countries. Its scattered, sparsely populated islands have long made it attractive to drug cartels, prompting the United Nations to label it a “narco-state” and a key transit point for cocaine headed to Europe.