The Economic Community of West African States (Cedeao) condemned this Tuesday the “attempted coup” in Guinea-Bissau, after intense shooting was heard on Tuesday near the presidential palace of the African country.
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“The Cedeao follows with great concern the evolution of the situation in Guinea-Bissau characterized this Tuesday, February 1, 2022, by military shots around the Government Palace,” the institution said in a statement.
The institution, made up of fifteen countries in the region, “condemns this attempted coup and holds the military responsible for the physical integrity of President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and members of the government.”
Likewise, the block demanded that the soldiers “return to their barracks and maintain a republican posture.” Cedeao’s statement was released after heavy weapons shots were heard around the presidential palace, which is surrounded by soldiers, according to the local newspaper Jornal O Democrata on Tuesday.
Inside the government building, a Council of Ministers was being held with the presence of the President of the Republic, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, and the Prime Minister, Nuno Gomes.
In videos shared by users on social networks, a soldier can be seen in the presidential compound shooting outside with a bazooka, as well as civilians running and screaming while shots are heard.
The shooting at the presidential palace in Bissau comes after four coups in the West African region since August 2020, the last one in Burkina Faso on January 24.
In mid-October 2021, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Guinea-Bissau, General Biague Na N’Tan, denounced an attempted coup d’état allegedly hatched by military commanders who wanted to mobilize young soldiers for this purpose. money exchange.
N’Tan assured then that “the Armed Forces have already moved away from politics” in this West African country which, since its independence from Portugal (declared in 1973 and recognized in 1974), has suffered numerous military uprisings, including four successful coups d’état, which has complicated its political and economic development.
In October 2019, the then Prime Minister of Guinea Bissau, Aristides Gomes, denounced an alleged coup attempt in order to prevent the holding of presidential elections, which took place on November 24 of that year.
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The winner of those elections was Umaro Sissoco Embaló, a brigadier general until the 1990s. Embaló had the support of the Army, which, after his inauguration, occupied public television and radio after preventing the former government from reporting on his inauguration. .
During the electoral campaign, Embaló presented himself as the best alternative against poverty and political paralysis in the country, which has been experiencing political difficulties and parliamentary paralysis for five years. Guinea-Bissau ranks 175th out of 189 on the UN Human Development Index, and two-thirds of its population of 1.8 million live on less than two dollars a day. Since its independence from Portugal, the country has suffered at least nine attempted coups.
UN reaction
The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, called on Tuesday for “full respect for democratic institutions” in Guinea-Bissau, shortly after it became known that there is an attempted coup in the African country.
In a statement issued from New York, Guterres was “deeply concerned” by the news from Bissau, where it is unclear whether coup plotters have seized power.
The secretary general’s spokesman, Farhan Haq, later said that Guterres’ immediate reaction shows the UN’s commitment to democracy and against what Guterres has called on other occasions a “coup epidemic” on the African continent, where since the beginning of 2021 there have already been at least five successful coups.
EFE
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