Guinea-Bissau soldiers have arrested the army chief and the prime minister, at one point threatening to kill him, in an apparent coup bid in the unstable west African country.
There were varying accounts on Thursday of whether Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior had been released or whether he remained under house arrest.
But the newly designated army chief, Antonio Indjai, having earlier threatened to kill Gomes, later sought to play down the events, saying the military still answered to the political authorities.
There was international condemnation of the developments, from the UN, the US, the EU and individual European nations.
A military source said Gomes had been arrested at his office early on Thursday, taken to the former army headquarters and then brought back to his office before being escorted to his home.
“We don’t know what to do with him,” he said, adding: “There was also a reaction from some loyalist officers.”
Soldiers were visible around army barracks while hundreds of people gathered outside the government headquarters chanted: “Free Cadogo, we have had enough violence.”
The chief of defence staff General Jose Zamora Induta and 40 officers had also been arrested, the military source said.
“We led them under escort to the air base near the airport,” the source said.
Indjai, previously the deputy army chief of staff, had been named to “manage the situation” in the tiny West African country, a military source said.
National radio broadcasts were interrupted by military music, but hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the prime minister’s residence to protest his arrest.
Indjai had threatened to kill Gomes, whose popular nickname is “Cadogo,” if his supporters continued to press for his release.
“We ask you to stop anything that attracts a crowd in the streets,” the general said at a press conference.
“If you do not do this, we will have to kill Cadogo.”
An angry Indjai had also said in a brief telephone interview: “Cadogo is a criminal and he must be tried as one.”
By late Thursday, the demonstrators had dispersed.
But in a statement later broadcast on the radio, Indjai said the military would submit to the political authorities.
President Malam Bacai Sanha acknowledged that deposed army chief Induta was being detained, in a statement to Portuguese radio.
Sanha said in a statement broadcast on Portugal’s Antena 1: “There was a confusion between soldiers that reached the government, but the situation is calm.”
Gomes was at home and the deposed army chief Induta was at an airbase close to Bissau, where he was detained.
“I asked that someone be sent to go see him, to see how he’s doing,” the president said. “We are going to try to work on calming the situation and resolve the problem.”
One witness said that by late Thursday, the soldiers guarding Gomes had been replaced by police officers, whose job it was to ensure his safety. It was still unclear though as to whether or not he was being detained.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a peaceful resolution, while a statement issued by his special representative for the country spoke of the prime minister’s “detention and subsequent release.”
The former Portuguese colony has seen repeated coups since independence in 1974.
A new crisis erupted in March last year when president Joao Bernardo Vieira was murdered by troops, apparently in revenge for the killing hours earlier of the armed forces chief.
The country has been overwhelmed by the international drugs trade, becoming a key transit point in cocaine smuggling between South America and Europe.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
RELEASE: The move follows Washington’s removal of Havana from its list of terrorism sponsors. Most of the inmates were arrested for taking part in anti-government protests Cuba has freed 127 prisoners, including opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, in a landmark deal with departing US President Joe Biden that has led to emotional reunions across the communist island. Ferrer, 54, is the most high-profile of the prisoners that Cuba began freeing on Wednesday after Biden agreed to remove the country from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsors — part of an eleventh-hour bid to cement his legacy before handing power on Monday to US president-elect Donald Trump. “Thank God we have him home,” Nelva Ortega said of her husband, Ferrer, who has been in and out of prison for the
RSS