A delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has visited Guinea-Bissau for mediation talks with leaders of last week’s coup, as regional pressure mounts on the military leaders who seized power after a disputed election.
The mission, led by ECOWAS chairman and Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio, came to Guinea-Bissau on Monday to urge the military authorities for a “complete restoration of constitutional order.”
The military has tightened restrictions in the country, banning all demonstrations and strikes.
“We’ve had today very fruitful discussions,” said Sierra Leone’s Foreign Minister Timothy Musa Kabba. “Both sides have expressed their different concerns.”
Joao Bernardo Vieira, the newly appointed foreign minister of Guinea-Bissau, said it was “very clearly established” that ECOWAS would not leave the country “during this difficult period.”
“The transitional authorities and the military will continue their discussions,” he said.
The coup unfolded three days after the country’s closely contested presidential election, with both main contenders – incumbent President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and opposition candidate Fernando Dias da Costa – claiming victory before provisional results were due to be announced. No results have been released since.
During the takeover, Embalo told French media by phone that he had been deposed and arrested. He has since fled to Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo.
Guinea-Bissau military officials appointed former army chief of staff General Horta Inta-A to lead a one-year transition government. On Saturday, Inta-a named a new 28-member cabinet, made up largely of figures allied with the deposed president.
Nigeria, meanwhile, said its President Bola Tinubu had authorised protection for opposition leader Dias da Costa, citing an “imminent threat to his life”.
According to a letter sent to ECOWAS by Nigeria’s minister of foreign affairs, Dias da Costa is currently at the Nigerian embassy in Bissau. The letter requested an ECOWAS troop deployment to provide security for the opposition candidate.
Separately, the main opposition African Independence Party for Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) said in a statement that its headquarters had been “illegally invaded by heavily armed militia groups” in the capital.
The party had been barred from presenting a presidential candidate in the November 23 election, a move criticised by civil rights groups as part of a wider clampdown on dissent.
ECOWAS, widely seen as West Africa’s leading political and regional authority with 15 member states, responded to the coup by suspending Guinea-Bissau from all its decision-making bodies “until the restoration of full and effective constitutional order in the country”.
International condemnation has continued to grow, with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saying that he is gravely concerned and condemning the military takeover, warning that ignoring “the will of the people who peacefully cast their vote during the November 23 general elections constitutes an unacceptable violation of democratic principles”.
Guterres called for the “immediate and unconditional restoration of constitutional order” and the release of all detained officials, including electoral authorities and opposition figures.
