Soldiers of the Guinea-Bissau National Guard released, on the night of Thursday, November 29 to Friday, December 1, two members of the government who were being questioned by the police, before exchanging gunfire with the special forces, according to military and intelligence sources.
The Minister of Economy and Finance, Souleiman Seidi, and the Secretary of State for the Public Treasury, Antonio Monteiro, were summoned by the courts on Thursday morning, then placed in police custody. The judicial police questioned the two senior officials for several hours over a withdrawal of a sum of 10 million dollars (9.17 million euros) from state coffers, according to the same sources, speaking under the seal of anonymity for security reasons.
Mr. Seidi was questioned on Monday by deputies about this withdrawal, during a session in the National Assembly. He affirmed that this withdrawal was legal and intended to support the national private sector. Still according to the same sources, around 10 p.m. Thursday evening (same GMT time), elements of the national guard, an army unit, exfiltrated the minister and the secretary of state from the premises of the judicial police, took them taken to an unknown destination, then took refuge in a barracks located in the Santa Luzia district, said the same sources.
Heavy fire
Heavy gunfire was then heard Friday morning in this neighborhood located in the south of the capital, Bissau, according to an AFP correspondent. Military and intelligence sources said special forces intervened against the National Guard after several unsuccessful mediation attempts. An exchange of fire followed before calm returned, they added.
Elements of the Support Force for the Stabilization of Guinea-Bissau, deployed in this country by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), were seen Friday morning patrolling the streets of Bissau , noted an AFP journalist. These events come as President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, elected in December 2019 for a five-year term, is in Dubai to attend the 28th United Nations Climate Conference (COP28).
A small, poor country in West Africa, Guinea-Bissau suffers from chronic political instability and has been the victim of a string of coups since its independence from Portugal in 1974, the last in February 2022.
In September, President Embalo appointed two generals, Tomas Djassi and Horta Inta, respectively head of presidential security and chief of staff of the President of the Republic. These two positions, provided for in the official organization chart, had not been filled for several decades. This strengthening of presidential security came as coups or attempts are increasing in West Africa, notably in Gabon, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and, again this week, in the Sierra leone.
