Guinea-Bissau Leader Dissolves Parliament After Coup Attempt

Katarina Hoije
·1 min read

(Bloomberg) -- President Umaro Sissoco Embalo has dissolved the nation’s parliament with immediate effect, following an attempted coup by members of the national guard last week.

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“Faced with this attempted coup, carried out by the National Guard, and the existence of strong evidence of political complicity, the normal functioning of the Republic’s institutions became unsustainable,” Embalo said in a decree on Monday. “These facts point to a serious political crisis.”

The date for the next legislative elections will be set in due time, according to the decree.

Gunfire erupted in the capital, Bissau, between the Presidential Palace Battalion and an elite military division known as the National Guard late Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 after the latter illegally freed the Economy and Finance Minister and Treasury Secretary, who were being held under investigation for alleged corruption, the Associated Press news agency reported. The nation’s Council of State has assessed that the disturbance was an attempted coup, President Embalo said at a briefing on Monday.

The president was outside the country and expected at the United Nations’ COP28 climate summit when the assault took place.

This was the second coup attempt in almost two years on the regime of the former army general who came to power following a 2019 runoff vote victory, which his opponent contested.

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