After seizing power, military appoints new leader in Guinea-Bissau

Ousted Embalo

Guinea-Bissau’s military on Thursday appointed a general to lead the country for one year, a day after seizing power, arresting the president, and halting the release of election results.

Soldiers patrolled the area around the presidential palace in Bissau on Thursday morning, while a few residents walked along the main road leading to the building, where heavy gunfire had erupted the previous day.

The army chief of staff, General Horta N’Tam, took the oath of office during a ceremony at military headquarters, declaring, “I have just been sworn in to lead the High Command,” AFP journalists observed.

Dozens of heavily armed soldiers were deployed at the event as he told a press conference that the actions taken were necessary “to block operations that aimed to threaten our democracy.”

A group of officers had announced on Wednesday that they had seized “total control” of the coup-prone nation, suspending the electoral process as Guinea-Bissau awaited the results of last Sunday’s vote, which President Umaro Sissoco Embaló had been expected to win.

N’Tam, who has served as the army’s chief of staff, is considered to have been close to Embaló in recent years.

He said evidence had been “sufficient to justify the operation,” adding that “necessary measures are urgent and important and require everyone’s participation.” Punch