Gunfire in Guinea-Bissau as president claims arrest in suspected coup

Gunfire erupted in Bissau on Wednesday as Guinea-Bissau’s President, Umaro Embaló, said he was arrested around 1 p.m. inside his office at the presidential palace, describing the incident as an unfolding coup d’état, according to The Africa Report.

Embaló, who contested last Sunday’s presidential election and claims, by his own tally, to have secured 65 per cent of the vote, told Jeune Afrique that his detention was carried out without the use of force.

He accused the Army Chief of Staff of leading the operation against him.

Also detained were the armed forces Chief of Staff, General Biaguê Na Ntan; the deputy Chief of Staff, General Mamadou Touré; and the interior minister, Botché Candé, heightening fears of a major rupture between the presidency and the military hierarchy.

Journalists covering the elections reported a rapidly worsening security situation in the capital, citing heavy gunfire around the National Electoral Commission headquarters.

According to The Africa Report, one reporter said his team was hiding inside the office of the commission’s communication officer as shots rang out in the vicinity.

Both Embaló and opposition contender Fernando Dias de Costa have declared themselves winners of the 23 November presidential vote.

Their competing claims come ahead of the provisional results, which the electoral commission is expected to announce on Thursday, November 27.

The standoff highlights the country’s chronic institutional instability. Embaló, who has frequently clashed with parliament and dissolved it in 2022, entered the election as the frontrunner, partly because the main opposition party, PAIGC, and its leader, Domingos Simões Pereira, were barred from contesting.

The latest unrest comes after an army statement—reported by AFP—announced the arrest of several senior officers alleged to be involved in a plot to destabilise the government, just one day before the official campaign for the legislative and presidential elections began.