By Atoyebi Nike
Streets in Guinea-Bissau’s capital stayed largely empty on Thursday after the military seized power, detained President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and shut the country’s borders. Soldiers controlled the area around the presidential palace in Bissau, where heavy gunfire erupted the previous day, and patrols moved through the city overnight.
The takeover came as the country awaited results from Sunday’s election, which Embalo was widely expected to win. A group of officers declared on Wednesday that they now held “total control” and had frozen the entire electoral process. Provisional results had been scheduled for release on Thursday.
General Denis N’Canha, head of the presidential military office, told reporters that a joint command of all security branches had assumed leadership “until further notice.” He alleged that authorities uncovered a plot by “drug lords” to smuggle weapons into the country and disrupt the constitutional order.
N’Canha announced a nationwide curfew, a shutdown of all media programming and the closure of land, air and sea borders. A new head of the “High Command for the Restoration of Order” is expected to be named soon, according to a military source.
Guinea-Bissau, positioned between Senegal and Guinea, has endured four successful coups since independence in 1974 and numerous failed attempts. The takeover adds to a wave of military takeovers in West Africa, including Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Guinea.
