The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Friday suspended the nation of Guinea-Bissau from all decision-making roles after its civilian government was overthrown in a coup.
ECOWAS strongly condemned the coup and said the suspension will remain in effect “until the restoration of full and effective constitutional order in the country.”
To that end, ECOWAS demanded the military of Guinea-Bissau provide safe passage for international observers, release all detained officials, and “allow the National Electoral Commission to proceed without delay with the declaration of the results of the elections of 23 November 2025.” The bloc said economic sanctions could be on the table if the military junta did not cooperate.
Guinea-Bissau is a small and impoverished country that has experienced numerous upheavals since it gained independence from Portugal in 1974. It was suspended from ECOWAS and the African Union (AU) for a previous coup in 2012.
Guinea-Bissau held an election last weekend in which current president Umaro Sissoco Embalo sought a second term in office. The election was originally scheduled for February, but was delayed over a dispute about exactly how long Embalo’s term was supposed to last. Critics said the delay should have disqualified Embalo from running again.
The election was watched by African and international observers with great apprehension, because nine other nations in West Africa have fallen to coups over the past decade.
Sure enough, Guinea-Bissau became the tenth fallen democracy in the region on Wednesday, when military officials announced they had taken control of the government and discarded the election results. A self-styled “High Military Command for the Restoration” announced it was in control of the country “until further notice.”
The election was a close contest between Embalo, a former military officer, and a relatively unknown opposition candidate named Fernando Dias da Costa.
The main opposition party, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, was completely banned from the election for allegedly failing to submit their application paperwork on time, a move that cast the entire vote under deep suspicion. The African Party chose to support Dias, since its own candidates were barred from running.
Wednesday’s events were chaotic and frightening, marked by sporadic bursts of gunfire in the national capital of Bissau. The military claimed it took action to thwart “an ongoing plan to destabilize our country” by international drug cartels, and announced Embalo had been deposed.
“To carry out this plan, an operational scheme had been put in place by certain national politicians with the participation of well-known national and foreign drug barons, as well as an attempt to manipulate electoral results,” a uniformed military spokesman claimed in a video address.
Dias posted a social media video accusing Embalo of secretly orchestrating a phony coup because he knew he was about to lose the race.
“Umaro lost the elections, and instead of accepting the result, he fabricated a coup d’etat. He couldn’t handle defeat, so he sent the presidential guard and the forces of the Ministry of the Interior to arrest me. I had to escape through a back door,” Dias said in the video.
“It was chaos he created, just to cling to power,” Dias charged.
Embalo told foreign reporters he had been arrested, although the military command announced no such action against him. He reappeared in Senegal on Thursday, courtesy of a flight charted by the Senegalese government.
Senegal’s Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko denounced the coup as a “scheme” intended to disrupt the election, although he did not name the schemers.
“The democratic process must be carried through to the end and the results announced,” he declared.
On Thursday, the junta swore in Gen. Horta N’Tam as “transitional president” for at least one year. The junta also rejected demands to release the results of last Sunday’s election, which should have been published on Thursday.
According to sources in the deposed government, former Prime Minister Domingos Pereira — a major supporter of Dias who had been barred from running for president himself — was under arrest, along with Interior Minister Botche Cande and several senior army officers.
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