By a Special Correspondent
Guinea Bissau descended into turmoil yesterday after military officers announced they had taken “total control” of the country, suspending the electoral process and closing all borders just three days after presidential and legislative elections.
Soldiers read the declaration from army headquarters in Bissau, the latest escalation in a nation long defined by political volatility and coups.
The statement, delivered by Brigadier General Denis N’Canha, landed amid chaos and confusion across the capital, as gunfire crackled around key government sites. Earlier, bursts of automatic fire were heard near the presidential palace, where armed men in fatigues blocked the main road. Shots were also reported around the National Electoral Commission (CNE), further clouding an already disputed vote count.
President Umaro Sissoco Embaló told Jeune Afrique he had been arrested around 1pm while in his office at the palace, calling the takeover a “coup d’état” orchestrated by the armed forces’ chief of staff.
Several senior officials were detained alongside him, including General Biaguê Na Ntan, the chief of staff; General Mamadou Touré, his deputy; and Botché Candé, the interior minister.
In their communique, the military leadership, calling itself the “High Military Command for the Restoration of National Security and Public Order,” said it acted to counter a destabilisation plot involving national politicians and a “well-known drug baron.” The language reflects the country’s long-standing struggle with narcotics trafficking.
But many locals believe the narrative offered by the military clashes sharply with what unfolded at the polls.
Both President Embaló and the main opposition candidate, Fernando Dias de Costa, declared victory after Sunday’s vote, deepening the confusion. Embaló claimed he had secured 65 percent, by his own count, while Dias de Costa’s camp said regional tallies showed the opposition had “won comfortably.” The electoral commission is expected to announce provisional results on Thursday, a moment that could either clarify the contest or further inflame tensions in a country already on edge.
The contested election reflects Guinea-Bissau’s ongoing institutional fragility. Embaló, who dissolved parliament in 2022 and has frequently clashed with the PAIGC-led opposition, entered the race as the favourite, partly because the country’s main opposition figure, Domingos Simões Pereira, was barred from running.
But Dias de Costa’s unexpectedly strong performance shattered those assumptions. As both camps rushed to proclaim victory and amid accusations that the presidency was leaning on institutions to validate its numbers, mistrust spread rapidly through an electorate long accustomed to political manipulation.
The detentions and sudden military intervention have exposed the depth of the rupture between the presidency and a security establishment that has long decided Guinea-Bissau’s political fate. The military’s move came less than 24 hours after Embaló met with senior security chiefs, a meeting in which, according to sources, he insisted he had already won the election and did not need the electoral commission’s validation to secure a second term. Analysts say the breakdown followed days of mounting tension over the president’s suspected efforts to tilt the vote in his favour and tighten his grip on power.
“By Monday it was clear something was coming; either a military takeover or a civilian uprising,” said a senior observer with one of the monitoring missions who was not authorised to speak publicly. “You could see in people’s faces that they would not allow anyone, military or political, to steal their victory. Fernando Dias de Costa had won.”
Within the Ecowas observer mission in Bissau, officials had been quietly voicing concerns for days. Several observers said the atmosphere around the vote, including the competing victory claims, the armed deployments near state institutions and the rising public anger, made the prospect of a coup feel increasingly plausible.
“Everyone could sense the temperature rising,” said one Ecowas official. “It never felt like a normal election.”
The military’s assertion of authority has been met with fierce pushback from civil society.
“What is happening in Guinea-Bissau is not a coup. It’s the desperate fabrication of an outgoing, politically outdated president, overwhelmingly defeated in the first round,” said Idrissa Djau Júnior, a Bissau-Guinean activist. “The truth will prevail. We shall not yield.”
What happens next is shrouded in uncertainty. Diplomats and observers say it is unclear whether the military will permit the provisional results to be released, move to annul the vote outright or attempt to impose an interim authority of its own.
The fate of Embaló, whose location remains unknown since his arrest, is equally opaque, fuelling speculation that the army may be positioning itself to hold power beyond the immediate crisis.
