{"id":43356,"date":"2025-11-28T23:21:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T23:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=43356"},"modified":"2025-11-28T23:21:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T23:21:03","slug":"cz0nlxlr87goat_mediumrssat_campaignrss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2025\/11\/28\/cz0nlxlr87goat_mediumrssat_campaignrss\/","title":{"rendered":"Guinea-Bissau coup called a &#8216;sham&#8217; by West African political figures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Senegal&#8217;s prime minister and Nigeria&#8217;s former president have both said they do not believe the ousting of Guinea-Bissau&#8217;s president by the country&#8217;s military was a genuine coup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Former President Umaro Sissoco Embal\u00f3&#8217;s apparent removal came a day before authorities were due to announce election results. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The military has since suspended the electoral process and blocked the results&#8217; release, and has insisted it thwarted a plot to destabilise the politically unstable country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Senegal&#8217;s PM Ousmane Sonko and Nigeria&#8217;s ex-leader Goodluck Jonathan demanded the presidential election results be released, but did not provide evidence to support their claims the coup was fabricated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The ex-president arrived in neighbouring Senegal on a chartered military flight late on Thursday,  following his release by the military forces who toppled his government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Nigeria&#8217;s former leader Jonathan, who led a team of election observers from the West African Elders Forum to Guinea-Bissau, said the incident &#8220;was not a coup&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">He described it as a &#8220;ceremonial coup&#8221;, questioning the events that preceded Wednesday&#8217;s announcement of a power grab by the military.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">He specifically wondered why President Embal\u00f3 was the first to announce his own overthrow and drew contrasts with how other leaders in the region were ousted in recent coups. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Embal\u00f3 phoned up French TV station France 24 and said: &#8220;I have been deposed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Meanwhile, Senegal&#8217;s Sonko told lawmakers that &#8220;what happened in Guinea-Bissau was a sham&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The statements of both men add to claims by the opposition that the coup was staged, although none has so far presented evidence to support this.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Embal\u00f3 has not commented on the allegations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">On Friday, Guinea-Bissau&#8217;s transitional leader Gen Horta N&#8217;Tam appointed Ilidio Vieira T\u00e9, previously the finance minister, as the new prime minister.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Additionally, the African Union suspended Guinea-Bissau on Friday following the unconstitutional military takeover, AFP reports. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The West African bloc Ecowas took a similar action, while urging the military to return to the barracks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Guinea-Bissau is a coup-prone West African nation which is also strained by drug trafficking. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The military said they were taking power to thwart a plot by unnamed politicians who had &#8220;the support of a well-known drug baron&#8221; to destabilise the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">A mother of three told the BBC it was not the first military takeover she had lived through, nonetheless it came as a surprise as people were expecting to hear about the outcome of the election, which had an estimated voter turnout of more than 65%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;We heard gunfire. We ran away. We tried to pack our bags to go home,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Another resident of the capital, Bissau, said he was unhappy about the situation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;This doesn&#8217;t help anyone. Because it puts the country into chaos,&#8221; Mohamed Sylla told the BBC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">But reactions have been mixed, with some residents praising the army and hoping for an orderly transition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;I am not against the military regime as long as they improve the living conditions in the country,&#8221; Suncar Gassama told the BBC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#GuineaBissau #coup #called #sham #West #African #political #figures<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senegal&#8217;s prime minister and Nigeria&#8217;s former president have both said they do not believe the ousting of Guinea-Bissau&#8217;s president by&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43358,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43356\/revisions\/43358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}