President Umaro Sissoco Embalo of Guinea-Bissau made the decision to dissolve the opposition-dominated Parliament on Monday, following three days of armed clashes that he refers to as a “coup d’état” and which threw the small African nation into yet another crisis.
According to a presidential decree made public to the media, “the date of the next legislative elections will be set at the appropriate time, in accordance with the provisions (…) of the Constitution.”
President Embalo calls on the “complicity” between the National Guard and “certain political interests within the state apparatus itself”. The National Guard is that group which fought against the Presidential Guard on Thursday evening and Friday. “After this attempted coup d’état led by the National Guard and in the face of strong evidence of the existence of political complicity, the normal functioning of the institutions of the Republic has become impossible. These facts confirm the existence of a serious crisis politics,” he said.
Since gaining independence from Portugal in 1974, Guinea-Bissau has undergone several coups, the most recent of which occurred in February 2022. The country is currently facing ongoing political instability.
On Thursday night, members of the National Guard stormed the judicial police building to remove Souleiman Seidi, the Minister of Economy and Finance, and Antonio Monteiro, the Secretary of State for the Public Treasury, who were being interrogated there. They then sought refuge in a military camp in Bissau, the country’s capital, and they used weapons to resist until Friday morning.
Two people were killed in the clashes. They are viewed as a fresh example of the profound political divisions between the government and the presidency at the centre of the state, which also extend to the security forces.
