Guinea-Bissau slid further into uncertainty on Thursday after the military announced that General Horta Inta-A had been appointed the head of a new transitional government, following days of confusion and tension surrounding the country’s presidential election.
State broadcaster TGB reported that the general will lead a one-year transition, though details about the takeover remain unclear, and questions persist about who is truly in charge within the armed forces.
Eyewitnesses in Bissau described unusually quiet streets and a heavy military presence around major intersections, government buildings, and other strategic points — signs of a capital city on edge.
This latest development comes a day after a group of military officers declared that they had assumed power, claiming they were acting to block what they described as a plot to rig Sunday’s election. They accused certain politicians and a powerful drug trafficker of working to manipulate the vote and throw the country into chaos.
Both incumbent President Umaro Sissoco Embaló and his challenger, Fernando Dias, claimed victory after the tightly contested poll, but official results have not yet been released, heightening political tensions.
Reports indicate that both Embaló and Dias are currently being detained by the military. Embaló told a French media outlet that he was in custody but insisted he had not been harmed.
With a long history of coups and attempted uprisings, dating back to its independence from Portugal in 1974, Guinea-Bissau is once again grappling with the instability that has frequently undermined its democratic processes. The country, a major transit point for cocaine moving from Latin America to Europe, has seen repeated power struggles involving political actors and elements linked to organised crime.
Embaló, a former general who came to power in 2020, dissolved the country’s parliament at the end of 2023 and has previously warned of multiple coup attempts against his administration, including one as recently as October.
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