Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embalo has left the country for Senegal after being detained during a military coup, the government in Dakar said Thursday, as a lead opponent accused him of arranging the uprising.
The military in volatile Guinea-Bissau appointed a general as the country’s new leader, a day after seizing power and derailing the announcement of election results.
Opposition candidate Fernando Dias da Costa told AFP he believed he won Sunday’s election and alleged Embalo — who has also claimed victory — had “organised” the power grab to prevent him from taking office.
Sandwiched between Guinea and Senegal, Guinea-Bissau has experienced four coups since independence from Portugal in 1974, as well as multiple attempted coups. Its election results are often contested.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned “an unacceptable violation of democratic principles” and called for an “immediate and unconditional restoration of constitutional order”, his spokesman said Thursday.
The military takeover in Guinea-Bissau is Africa’s 10th in five years, after coups in Mali, Guinea, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Niger, Gabon and, last month, Madagascar.
Embalo arrived in Senegal on a military plane chartered by its government, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The coup unfolded a day before authorities were due to announce provisional results of the presidential ballot and parliamentary polls.
