Guinea-Bissau was plunged into turmoil on Wednesday after the military abruptly seized control, shutting all land, air and sea borders, imposing an overnight curfew, and reportedly detaining both the sitting president and the opposition leader in one of the country’s most dramatic political ruptures in decades.
Sustained gunfire echoed across Bissau, rattling buildings near key government installations — including the election commission headquarters, the presidential palace and the Ministry of the Interior — as soldiers moved in to take control of the capital.
In a stunning admission, President Umaro Sissoco Embaló told France24 during a phone call, “I have been deposed… I am currently at the general staff headquarters.”
Hours later, Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, reporting from neighbouring Senegal, confirmed that Embaló was under arrest.
But the purge did not end there.
The head of PAIGC — Guinea-Bissau’s largest opposition party — Domingos Simões Pereira, was also arrested, Haque revealed. As panic spread through the city, the military began cutting off internet access, further tightening its grip on the nation already on edge after a deeply contested election.
The man reportedly leading the takeover is Denis N’Canha, the commander of the presidential guard — the very force meant to protect the head of state.
“The man supposed to protect the president has put him under arrest,” Haque said, underscoring the depth of betrayal and the fragility of Guinea-Bissau’s democracy.
The coup comes just days after Sunday’s presidential vote, a tense contest between Embaló and his main challenger, Fernando Dias. Results were expected Thursday — but scepticism had already engulfed the process.
Civil society groups and observers questioned the legitimacy of the vote, particularly after the influential PAIGC party was barred from fielding a candidate. Analysts had warned this could lead to a dangerous political impasse.
Both Embaló and Dias claimed victory in the first round without evidence, igniting chaos even before the military intervened.
“There won’t be a second round,” Embaló’s campaign spokesperson Oscar Barbosa insisted, promising a decisive win.
Dias, meanwhile, declared triumph in a video posted online: “This election has been won… in the first round.”
With both sides pushing unverified claims and tempers rising, the military appears to have calculated that the standoff was spiralling beyond civilian control.
Guinea-Bissau, since independence from Portugal in 1974, has endured repeated coups and attempted coups, many triggered by disputed elections and rival political factions.
The current crisis echoes the 2019 post-election standoff — which also involved Embaló — when a four-month deadlock paralysed the country as competing candidates claimed victory.
International partners are calling for calm. Portugal urged all actors to avoid “institutional or civic violence” and insisted that state institutions must function in order to conclude the electoral process.
But with borders closed, curfews active, the president in custody, and the opposition chief also detained, Guinea-Bissau appears once again trapped in a familiar storm — one where the military, not the ballot, decides the final outcome.
As night falls on Bissau, the world watches anxiously, uncertain of what Thursday’s sunrise will bring to the troubled West African nation.
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