Coup carried out: Military arrests President, shuts down all TV networks, closes borders and imposes curfew

The coup took place a day before the West African country, one of the poorest in the world with a flourishing cocaine trade, was due to announce the preliminary results of its presidential elections.This small nation, located between Senegal and Guinea, has been marked by political instability for decades, reports Jutarnji list. Since gaining independence from Portugal in 1974, Guinea-Bissau has experienced at least nine coups or attempted coups. MILITARY COUP: Soldiers in Guinea-Bissau seize full control of the country and reportedly detain the president.Full statement: ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/I2cC7ceWsr&mdash; Linda Ikeji Blog (@lindaikeji) November 26, 2025 Around 1 p.m. local time on Wednesday, heavy gunfire erupted near the presidential palace and the headquarters of the national electoral commission in the capital, Bissau, lasting nearly an hour.Panic ensued: hundreds of people fled on foot and in vehiclesLater, General Denis N&#39;Canha, head of the presidential military office, appeared on state television and announced that Umaro Sissoco Embal&oacute;, the president and favorite in Sunday&rsquo;s elections, had been arrested.In his address, surrounded by heavily armed soldiers, General N&#39;Canha claimed that a plan to destabilize the country had been uncovered&mdash;allegedly involving &ldquo;local drug lords&rdquo;&mdash;which supposedly included &ldquo;smuggling weapons into the country to overthrow the constitutional order.&rdquo; The military has seized power in a coup in Guinea-Bissau. President Umaro Embal&oacute; has been arrested after a disputed election.The opposition was disqualified from contesting.He dissolved the Parliament for 2 years.His administration survived two previous coup attempts. pic.twitter.com/9ZLPxErOED&mdash; Africa Facts Zone (@AfricaFactsZone) November 26, 2025 He added that, along with halting the &ldquo;entire electoral process,&rdquo; the military had suspended &ldquo;all media programming,&rdquo; closed the borders, and imposed a curfew.Embal&oacute;, who was supposed to face his main challenger, Fernando Dias da Costa, in a runoff, was attempting to become the first president in the last three decades to win two consecutive terms.Self-staged coup?Alongside Embal&oacute;, the chief of the presidential military staff and several ministers were reportedly arrested.For the elections and the post-election period, more than 6,780 security personnel were deployed across the country, including soldiers from the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) stabilization forces.The last presidential election in 2019 was marked by a four-month-long crisis after the vote, as both leading candidates claimed victory.Some of Embal&oacute;&rsquo;s critics, who claim he survived three coup attempts during his term, speculated that the president may have staged the coup himself to avoid leaving office in case of an electoral defeat.The current president told French television France 24 on Wednesday: &ldquo;I have been overthrown.&rdquo;Guinea-Bissau has earned an infamous reputation as a &ldquo;narco-state,&rdquo; according to UN assessments, serving as a key transit point for cocaine trafficking from Latin America to Europe.The illegal trade apparently flourished during Embal&oacute;&rsquo;s tenure as well; in September last year, the judicial police announced the seizure of 2.63 tons of cocaine from a plane that landed in Bissau from Venezuela.

Coup carried out: Military arrests President, shuts down all TV networks, closes borders and imposes curfew

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