The boss of the Bissau-Guinean army announced on Thursday, October 14, 2021, that he had thwarted the preparations for a coup d’état. He said that he identified military personnel who wanted to overturn the constitutional order.

The statement was made on Thursday by the Chief of the General Staff of the Army Biagué Na Ntan. We have managed to identify a group of FARP (People’s Revolutionary Armed Forces) soldiers who are mobilizing soldiers by buying their conscience against banknotes in order to subvert the established constitutional order,’ he said. A statement on the occasion of the celebration of the 47th anniversary of the creation of the National Military Police.

These events occurred as President Umaru Sissoco Embalo left Bissau the capital for a 48-hour working visit.

Since independence in 1974, Guinea Bissau has experienced four putschs. The first disturbance to the constitutional order dates back to April 12, 2012. It was led by the army, commanded by General Mamadu Ture Kuruma, Vice Chief of Staff, following the first round of a contested presidential election, won at the time by Carlos Gomes Junior. 

In all, the country has been the scene of sixteen attempts at a coup d’état and many changes of government with a political landscape that is sometimes unstable and turbulent.

As a reminder, Guinea-Bissau is a former Portuguese colony. It has been independent for 47 years after a long war of liberation. This struggle was led by Amilcar Cabral, a politician from Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde Islands. He is the founder of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC), which led to the independence of these two states colonized by Portugal.

The street sign named after Senegalese President Macky Sall was vandalized. The stele was attacked on Tuesday, August 17, 2021. Unidentified people destroyed everything in their path.

The avenue named in reference to the President of the Republic of Senegal Macky Sall in Guinea Bissau was attacked on Tuesday, August 17. This attack shows once again the dissatisfaction of many Bissau-Guineans over the choice of their authorities to name this avenu in the name of the Senegalese head of state. 

On 24 September 2020, the President of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, decided to change the name of the avenue Caetano Semedo, in favour of the President of Senegal. This decision created a great controversy among the population.
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Guinea-Bissau still cannot understand this imposed choice without prior consultation. For some, it is unacceptable to choose Macky Sall instead of a hero who fought for the liberation of the country.

President Embalo justifies the choice made on Macky Sall by his commitment and support for him during the presidential elections of November and December 2019, but also for his involvement in the regulation of the crisis that has been shaking this country for months.

It smells of tension between Guinea-Bissau President Umarou Sissoko Embalo and his Guinean counterpart Alpha Condé.  For good reason, the Head of State of Guinea-Bissau went directly against Alpha Condé, whom he blamed for the arbitrary decision to close its borders with Senegal, Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau. He made remarks on the sidelines of the 46th session of the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council on Saturday 19 June in Accra.

It was hot between the Bissau-Guinean and Guinean presidents Umarou Sissoko Embalo and Alpha Conde. On the occasion of the signing of a military memorandum of understanding between Alpha Condé and Macky Sall on Saturday 19 June in Ghana, the President of Guinea-Bissau openly attacked his Guinean counterpart who closed his borders with Senegal, Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau. A decision deemed abnormal by the Head of State of Guinea-Bissau for whom it is a real abuse of power because the countries in question are not in the dynamics of an armed conflict. 

Umarou Sissoko Embalo is also totally opposed to the signing of this memorandum of understanding between Dakar and Conakry. He said that it was out of the question for him to delegate ministers to sign this kind of agreement that does not hide the casual behaviour, according to him, of Alpha Condé. “There is no war between Senegal and Guinea… We must tell the truth to President Alpha. He had no right to close the borders with Senegal, Guinea Bissau and Sierra Leone. I will never send ministers to sign these types of agreements,’ he said openly before the Ghanaian head of state, Nana Akufo Addo, president of the ceremony, took his word from him in a firm tone.

Remember that Alpha Condé and Umarou Cissoko Embalo have been in trouble for several months. Indeed, the Head of State of Guinea-Bissau was totally opposed to the third mandate of Alpha Condé as head of Guinea. Moreover, he refused to congratulate him after his victory in the first round and called the third presidential term a “coup d’état” at the ECOWAS Heads of State Summit in August 2020.

Conakry also closed its borders with Senegal, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone in late September 2020, just before the presidential election. Several official sources cited “security reasons” and “possible destabilization operations” conducted from the outside in the electoral context. For the moment, the situation is settling down with Freetown, the Sierra Leonean capital. It will soon be with Dakar but the situation remains tense with the central power of Bissau given the current posture of the two leaders.