26.11.2025
Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embaló has been ousted in a military coup and placed under arrest.
Embalo who won last Sunday’s presidential elections with 65 percents of the votes was arrested without any accident at the Presidential Palace Wednesday afternoon.
Also arrested were the armed forces’ chief of staff, General Biaguê Na Ntan; the deputy chief of staff, General Mamadou Touré; and the interior minister, Botché Candé. General Denis N’Canha, head of the presidential military office, told members of the press that a command “composed of all branches of the armed forces, was taking over the leadership of the country until further notice”.
According to him the army acted to save the West African country sharing borders with Guinea and Senegal from destabilisation “put in place by certain national politicians with the participation of [a]well-known drug baron.”
The camp of incumbent President Embaló and opposition candidate Fernando Dias de Costa have each claimed first-round victory in Guinea-Bissau’s 23 November 23 presidential election, even though the official provisional results are not due until Thursday 27 November.
The fallout reflects Guinea-Bissau’s long-running institutional fragility. Embaló, who has repeatedly clashed with parliament and dissolved it in 2022, entered the poll as the favourite, not least because the country’s main opposition force, the PAIGC, and its leader Domingos Simões Pereira were barred from participating.