BISSAU (Reuters) -The African Union and the West African bloc ECOWAS on Tuesday condemned an ‘tried coup’ in Guinea-Bissau after heavy gunfire was heard close to a authorities compound the place the president had been chairing a cupboard assembly.
If confirmed, this might be the second navy energy seize in West Africa in as many weeks after a coup in Burkina Faso on Jan. 24.
“ECOWAS is following with nice concern the evolution of the scenario in Guinea-Bissau … the place navy gunfire is going down across the Government Palace,” the organisation stated.
The African Union issued an identical assertion, including that some authorities members had been being detained and calling on the navy to launch them. It gave no particulars.
President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and cupboard members had been in the compound, surrounded by the navy, in accordance with three sources — one diplomatic, one safety and one police. The president and ministers’ precise scenario was unclear.
Political instability has blighted Guinea-Bissau for many years, with 9 coups or tried coups since independence from Portugal in 1974.
The Portuguese embassy urged its residents in Guinea-Bissau to remain at residence.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “deeply involved” by the studies from Guinea-Bissau, a spokesman stated.
A safety supply with contacts contained in the Government Palace stated an unknown variety of individuals had been hit by gunfire. A second supply stated two individuals had been useless, but it surely was unclear who they had been.
An unverified video shared on social media confirmed three closely armed males in civilian clothes rising from a four-by-four car in the Government Palace automobile park, gunshots echoing in the background.
Normally busy streets across the compound had been abandoned, a civil society activist stated. Another unverified video shared on social media appeared to indicate a person standing exterior the compound firing a rocket-propelled grenade.
‘COUP CONTAGION’
Members of presidency didn’t reply phone calls from Reuters in search of verification of what was taking place.
Sissoco Embalo had begun chairing the extraordinary cupboard assembly at round 10 a.m., coming into the constructing with a heavy safety element, a diplomatic supply stated.
The cupboard assembly was being held to organize for a forthcoming ECOWAS summit in response to final week’s navy takeover in Burkina Faso, the most recent in a rash of coups throughout the area in the final 18 months.
“It appears to be like more and more onerous to argue towards the thought of coup contagion,” stated Eric Humphrey-Smith, an analyst in danger consultancy Verisk Maplecroft.
“When added to profitable coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Chad in the previous 12 months, there isn’t a doubt that West African leaders are nervously trying over their shoulders.”
Embalo has been at odds along with his prime minister, Nuno Gomes Nabiam, for weeks. The prime minister voiced opposition to a minor authorities shake-up final week in which a handful of ministers had been changed.
The nation was thrown into post-election turmoil two years in the past when the runner-up Domingos Simoes Pereira and his highly effective PAIGC occasion contested the outcomes that handed Embalo the presidency. Pereira accused Embalo of illegally seizing energy with the backing of the nation’s navy, which he denied.
(Additional reporting by Hereward Holland, Bate Felix, David Lewis, Edward McAllister and Aaron Ross; Writing by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Frank Jack Daniel)
