Guinea-Bissau Junta Names New Prime Minister As Regional Pressure Mounts

By Staff, Agencies

Guinea-Bissau’s military, which seized power following a disputed presidential election earlier this week, has appointed Finance Minister Ilídio Vieira Té as the country’s new prime minister.

The announcement was made Friday by the junta’s leader, Gen. Horta Inta-a, who deposed President Umaro Sissoco Embaló after Sunday’s tightly contested vote.

Vieira Té, a close political ally of Embaló and his former campaign director, was chosen three days after soldiers took control of the capital and reportedly detained the incumbent.

The opposition, however, maintains that Embaló fabricated the coup to halt the electoral process and avoid an expected defeat. Both Embaló and his rival, Fernando Dias, have claimed victory in the vote.

Guinea-Bissau — a West African nation long plagued by political instability, military interventions, and a powerful narcotics trade linking Latin America and Europe — has faced successive coups and attempts since gaining independence from Portugal more than 50 years ago. The most recent attempt occurred in October.

Following the takeover, the High Military Command lifted a curfew on Friday and reopened movement across Bissau. Markets, banks, and the stock exchange have resumed operations, and checkpoints were removed as calm gradually returned to the capital.

Embaló left the country on Thursday aboard a Senegal-chartered flight. Dakar confirmed it was in contact with all involved parties and pledged support for restoring constitutional order. Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko echoed claims that the coup was staged to disrupt election results and demanded the release of detained opposition figures, saying the electoral process “must be carried through to the end.”

ECOWAS, the 15-nation West African bloc, responded late Thursday by suspending Guinea-Bissau from its decision-making bodies, warning it may consider sanctions against actors responsible for derailing the democratic process. A mediation mission led by the bloc’s chair, and including the presidents of Togo, Cabo Verde, and Senegal, will travel to Bissau to press for a return to constitutional rule.

Analysts say the situation remains highly uncertain. Bakary Sambe of the Timbuktu Institute for Peace Studies cautioned that ECOWAS should avoid hasty punitive measures, noting that the region is still grappling with the fallout from earlier failures to reverse coups in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso.

“We are caught between an incomplete electoral process and a military intervention that has generated contradictory interpretations,” Sambe said. “This time, ECOWAS appears more cautious, trying to avoid repeat mistakes.”