from MAMADU BALDE in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau Bureau
BISSAU, (CAJ News) – IN a country where only one president, in over 50 years of self-rule, has completed his term, the military coup in Guinea-Bissau has plunged the country into its worst political crisis in over a decade.
The regime change by the uniformed forces has overthrown incumbent, Umaro Embalo, himself a military officer.
As the curtain comes down to what has been a largely chaotic year for the continent as far as elections are concerned, this adds to the king-sized headache bedeviling the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), dubbed the world’s coup belt for it having the largest number of military takeovers in recent years.
A catastrophe has been brewing in the country of 2,2 million following elections this past weekend as both Embalo (53) and Fernando Dias da Costa (47) claimed victory in the presidential poll.
They did as the National Electoral Commission continued the vote counting process, now rendered futile by the coup.
On Wednesday, Brigadier General Denis N’Canha announced a military takeover and declared that the armed forces had assumed full control of the former Portuguese colony and established the High Military Command for the Restoration of Order.
Embalo, in power for five years and seeking re-election, has been placed under house arrest, moments after gunfire was heard outside the presidential palace in Bissau.
Borders have been sealed and a curfew is in place, impacting on Bissau-Guineans. State institutions have been suspended.
The crisis in Guinea-Bissau represents a dramatic turn of events, with the African Union Election Observation Mission having commended the peaceful environment that prevailed on Election Day, Sunday.
This is not the first time the post-election period has triggered a coup in the West African nation.
In 2012, elements of the armed forces staged a coup about two weeks before the second round of a presidential election between Carlos Gomes Junior and Kumba Iala (now late).
The junta initially arrested both second-round candidates.
Polls had been held after Malam Bacai Sanha had died in office.
The country has been synonymous with coups since independence in 1974, coincidentally self-ruled as a benefit from a coup that year in Portugal.
The Portuguese Carnation Revolution coup government granted Guinea-Bissau independence.
Luis Cabral (now deceased), Guinea’s first president was deposed in 1980.
João Bernardo Vieira was ousted by assassination in 1999 during the civil war and Iala supplanted in 2003.
There was a failed coup that year and in 2022, which Embalo survived. There were also allegations of another coup plot at the end of October 2025.
Jose Mario Vaz, Embalo’s predecessor, is the only president post- independence to finish his term.
The post-election coup on Wednesday is reverberating across the continent.
The heads of the observer missions of the African Union Commission, ECOWAS and West Africa Elders Forum condemned the coup.
Former Mozambique president, Felipe Nyusi, Ghanaian diplomat Issifu Baba Braimah Kamara and ex-Nigeria president, Goodluck Jonathan, led the missions.
“We deplore this blatant attempt to disrupt this democratic process and the gains that have been achieved thus far,” they jointly stated.
They appealed to AU and ECOWAS to take the “necessary steps” to restore constitutional order in Guinea-Bissau.
Rarely have these organisations reversed coups but have suspended member states, the latest Madagascar in October.
Prior, Guinea was suspended in 2003.
The overthrow of Andry Rajoelina and Mohamed Bazoum, respectively, were not election-related.
In Africa, the next polls are scheduled for the Central African Republic (CAR), on December 28.
It is another country known for coups.
President Faustin-Archange Touadéra, initially restricted to two terms as per constitution, is seeking a third one after a controversial referendum in 2023 removed term limits.
– CAJ News