Senegal’s prime minister and Nigeria’s former president have both said they believe the ousting of Guinea-Bissau’s president this week was staged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Umaro Sissoco Embal\u00f3’s apparent removal by the military on Wednesday came a day before authorities were due to announce election results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The military has since suspended the electoral process and blocked the release of the results, insisting it\u00a0thwarted a plot to destabilise the politically unstable country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senegal’s PM Ousmane Sonko and Nigeria’s ex-leader Goodluck Jonathan did not provide evidence to support their claim that the coup was fabricated. Embal\u00f3 has previously faced accusations of using crises to quash dissent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some local civil society groups have accused Embal\u00f3 of masterminding a “simulated coup” against himself with the help of the military, saying it was a ruse to block election results from coming out in case he lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Embal\u00f3 has not responded to the allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 53-year-old former president arrived in neighbouring Senegal on a chartered military flight late on Thursday following his release by the military forces who toppled his government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nigeria’s Jonathan, who led a team of election observers from the West African Elders Forum to Guinea-Bissau, said the incident “was not a coup”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He described it as a “ceremonial coup”, questioning the events that preceded it and why it was Embal\u00f3 who first announced his own overthrow. The latter phoned French TV station France 24 and said: “I have been deposed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jonathan contrasted this with how other leaders in the region were ousted in recent coups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Senegal’s Sonko told lawmakers that “what happened in Guinea-Bissau was a sham”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both men have demanded the results of the presidential election be released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their statements add to opposition claims in Guinea-Bissau that the coup was contrived, though no-one has so far presented evidence to support this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Embal\u00f3 has said he has survived multiple coup attempts during his time in office – though critics have previously accused him of fabricating crises in order to crack down on dissent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He dissolved Guinea-Bissau’s parliament after one attempted coup in December 2023 and the country has not had a sitting legislature since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Friday, Guinea-Bissau’s transitional leader Gen Horta N’Tam appointed Ilidio Vieira T\u00e9, previously the finance minister, as the new prime minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, the African Union suspended Guinea-Bissau’s membership on Friday because of the unconstitutional military takeover, AFP reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The West African bloc Ecowas took a similar action, while urging the military to return to the barracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Guinea-Bissau is a coup-prone West African nation which is also strained by drug trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The military said they were taking power to thwart a plot by unnamed politicians who had “the support of a well-known drug baron” to destabilise the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A mother of three told the BBC that it was not the first military takeover she had lived through, but had nonetheless come as a surprise as people were expecting to hear about the outcome of the election, which had an estimated voter turnout of more than 65%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We heard gunfire. We ran away. We tried to pack our bags to go home,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another resident of the capital, Bissau, said he was unhappy about the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This doesn’t help anyone because it puts the country into chaos,” Mohamed Sylla told the BBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But reactions have been mixed, with some residents praising the army and hoping for an orderly transition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I am not against the military regime as long as they improve the living conditions in the country,” Suncar Gassama told the BBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Senegal’s prime minister and Nigeria’s former president have both said they believe the ousting of Guinea-Bissau’s president this week was staged. Umaro Sissoco Embal\u00f3’s apparent removal by the military on Wednesday came a day before authorities were due to announce election results. The military has since suspended the electoral process and blocked the release of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,15],"tags":[7,26,25],"class_list":{"0":"post-40702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-politics","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-politics"},"yoast_head":"\n