Guinea-Bissau’s armed forces have appointed General Horta N’Tam as the country’s new leader for a one-year transition period, one day after soldiers took control of the government, detained President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, and halted the release of election results.
The streets around the presidential palace in Bissau remained tense on Thursday, with soldiers patrolling the area where heavy gunfire had erupted the day before.
Only a handful of civilians were seen moving along the normally busy road leading to the complex.
General N’Tam, previously the army’s chief of staff and widely regarded as an ally of Embalo, took his oath at military headquarters.
“I have just been sworn in to lead the High Command,” he said, according to AFP journalists present. Dozens of heavily armed soldiers surrounded the compound during his address.
N’Tam insisted that the operation was necessary “to block activities that threatened our democracy,” adding that immediate measures were required to stabilise the country.
The takeover began on Wednesday when a group of senior officers announced they had assumed “total control” of Guinea-Bissau.
They suspended the electoral process as the nation awaited results from Sunday’s polls, which Embalo had been tipped to win.
General Denis N’Canha, head of the presidential military office, accused unnamed “drug lords” of plotting to undermine the constitutional order by smuggling weapons into the country.
He said the plot had justified the military intervention.
Since independence from Portugal in 1974, Guinea-Bissau has endured four successful coups and numerous failed attempts, gaining a reputation as one of West Africa’s most politically fragile states.
Following the coup, the military suspended all media programming, imposed a nationwide curfew and shut land, air and sea borders, though General Lassana Mansali announced on Thursday that borders had been reopened.
President Embalo is currently being held at the armed forces’ general-staff headquarters and “well-treated”, according to military sources.
Senior officials, including the chief of staff and the interior minister, were also detained.
Opposition figure Domingos Simoes Pereira, who was disqualified from contesting last weekend’s presidential election by the Supreme Court, was arrested as well, sources close to him confirmed.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) issued a strong statement condemning the coup and reaffirming its “zero tolerance” stance toward unconstitutional changes of government.
The United Nations also expressed alarm, with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres monitoring developments “with deep concern”.
Portugal, Guinea-Bissau’s former colonial ruler, urged restraint and warned against any form of violence.
Reporters Without Borders criticised the shutdown of the media as a “grave attack on the right to information”, stressing the public’s need for reliable updates during a political crisis.
Guinea-Bissau, one of the poorest countries in the world, has long served as a transit point for drug trafficking between Latin America and Europe, an issue often exacerbated by political turmoil.
Security and stability remain central concerns for citizens, especially as the army reported foiling an attempted plot to undermine the constitutional order just last month.
The coup adds to a growing list of military takeovers in West Africa in recent years, joining Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Guinea.
