Published On 28/11/2025
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Last update: 02:50 (Mecca time)
The army in Guinea-Bissau installed Major General Horta Inta as the country’s interim president yesterday, Thursday, the day after it seized power and overthrew the civilian leadership before announcing the results of the elections held over the weekend.
Inta appeared wearing military uniform and surrounded by other military officials in his first public appearance as president in a ceremony broadcast on state television yesterday.
He said that the coup was necessary to thwart a plot by “drug traffickers” to seize Guinean democracy, noting that the transitional phase would last one year, starting immediately.
Calm prevailed in the center of the capital, Bissau, with soldiers deployed in the streets and many residents remaining in their homes even after the night curfew was lifted, and companies and banks closed their doors.
In the swearing-in ceremony later yesterday, Major General Thomas Djasi was appointed Chief of Army Staff.
On the other hand, the Senegalese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the ousted President of Guinea-Bissau, Omar Sissoko Embalo, arrived in Senegal on a private plane, after intervention from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
The officers – who referred to themselves as the “High Military Command for the Restoration of Order” – said in a statement broadcast on television on Wednesday that they ousted Embalo in response to a destabilization plan involving politicians and major drug traffickers.
This is the ninth coup in West and Central Africa in 5 years, and it is a continuation of the state of instability in Guinea-Bissau, which is a notorious cocaine transport hub and has a long history of military interference in politics.
The seizure of power came a day before the preliminary results that were expected to be announced between Embalo and Fernando Dias, the 47-year-old newcomer to the political scene, who emerged as Embalo’s strongest competitor for the presidency.
Before the coup was announced, gunfire rang out in the capital, Bissau, for about an hour, near the headquarters of the Electoral Commission and the presidential palace.
Embalo contacted French media to inform them of the decision to dismiss him, and the army announced that Embalo and other senior officials were “under the control of the senior military command.”
In a statement, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mahmoud Ali Yusuf, condemned the coup and called for the immediate and unconditional release of Embalo “and all detained officials.”
The heads of state of the ECOWAS group also denounced the coup in a post on the X platform, and later held a video meeting to discuss the situation.
The European Union said constitutional order should be restored and vote counting allowed to go ahead.