Bissau – 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.
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.
The FIRED up Bregadier general Denis N’Canha from Guinea Bissau announces the military has taken full control of the country. As the Acting AU Chair, I endorse this revolutionary action! Who is next? pic.twitter.com/NMYkFvnPJ0
— African (@ali_naka) November 26, 2025
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.
General Horta N’Tam, chief of staff of the army, was designated the leader for a period of one year. He is considered to have been close in recent years to Embalo.
“I have just been sworn in to lead the High Command,” he declared, taking the oath of office at the military’s headquarters on Thursday.
Opposition candidate escapes
Dias, who said he was safe and in hiding, was Embalo’s main challenger after leading opposition candidate Domingos Simoes Pereira was barred by the supreme court from standing.
“I am the president (elect) of Guinea-Bissau,” Dias told AFP by telephone, adding that he thought he might have garnered around 52 percent of the vote.
“There wasn’t a coup,” he said, adding the outcome had been “organised by Mr Embalo”.
Dias said he had escaped from his campaign HQ on Wednesday when armed men came to arrest him.
Military officers have seized control of Guinea-Bissau and detained the president. Led by the head of the presidential guard, the group says its acting to stop vote rigging just hours before official election results were to be released. pic.twitter.com/qchGoqbFjl
— Boniface (@kilundeezy) November 28, 2025
Pereira, who backed Dias after his exclusion from the race, was himself arrested on Wednesday.
The military has appointed General Tomas Djassi, formerly the personal chief of staff to Embalo, as chief of staff of the armed forces.
‘Necessary measures’
Bissau, the capital of the west African country, was at a standstill on Thursday, AFP journalists saw.
Most shops and markets were closed and soldiers patrolled the streets.
The new military leaders banned “all media programming” and outlawed protests.
Surrounded by heavily armed soldiers, N’Tam told a press conference on Thursday the military had acted “to block operations that aimed to threaten our democracy”.
He said evidence had been “sufficient to justify the operation”, adding that “necessary measures are urgent and important and require everyone’s participation”.
General Denis N’Canha, head of the presidential military office, told journalists the army was assuming control “until further notice” after a plan involving “drug lords” had been uncovered, including “the introduction of weapons into the country to alter the constitutional order”.
Land, air and sea borders — which were all sealed off on Wednesday – were reportedly reopened, however.
A nationwide curfew was lifted and the High Command ordered the “immediate reopening” of markets, schools and private institutions.
‘Can’t go on’
Members of Guinea-Bissau’s diaspora and researchers told AFP they queried the true motives behind the power grab, which they alleged could ultimately benefit Embalo.
Researchers interviewed by AFP said unverified preliminary results circulating before the coup showed opposition candidate Dias as the election winner.
“This is a coup aimed at preventing the opposition candidate, Fernando Dias, from seizing power,” one west African researcher told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“This is the ideal scenario for Mr Embalo, who could, following negotiations, be released and potentially reposition himself for the next elections.”
West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, has suspended Guinea-Bissau from its decision-making bodies until constitutional order is restored.
The African Union has condemned the coup, while the European Union urged “a swift return to the constitutional order and the resumption of the electoral process”.
“Every time we feel hopeful about the country, a crisis occurs,” said Mamadou Woury Diallo, a soap seller at a market in Bissau. “This can’t go on.”
Follow African Insider on Facebook, X and Instagram
Picture: X/@USEmbalo
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
Source: AFP
