By A Semana
Africa-Press – Cape verde. The deposed president of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, said in an interview with an African channel that he regrets Portugal’s hostile behavior whenever its leader is named “Mamadou, Omar, or Ibrahim.”
The ousted president of Guinea-Bissau stated, in an interview with 1Africa TV, that Portugal is to blame for the coup that occurred on Wednesday.
Umaro Sissoco Embaló, who landed in Dakar on Thursday night on a plane chartered by the Senegalese government, accused Portugal of hostile behavior.
“Whenever there is a Muslim president in Guinea-Bissau, Portugal is very hostile,” he accused, in a moment that can be seen in a segment of the interview shared on the African channel’s Facebook page.
In the same interview, Embaló laments this hostility, noting that “60% of the population” of his country is Muslim, but emphasizes that whenever the country’s president is named “Mamadou, Omar, or Ibrahim,” relations with our country change. His statements contradict the message conveyed by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who previously stated that he had contacted his Guinean counterpart, who told him he was in good health and had a “grateful, positive and friendly reaction”.
Criticism of Portugal is not new
The last few hours in Guinea-Bissau have been marked by criticism, highlighting the inaction on the part of the CPLP (Community of Portuguese Language Countries), but also of Portugal, ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) and the African Union (AU) itself.
Both the CPLP and ECOWAS immediately scheduled emergency meetings to discuss the latest events and take a position, and the president of the African Union (AU) electoral observation mission in Guinea-Bissau, former Mozambican president Filipe Nyusi, said that the atmosphere in the country was calm, but with “some timidity in the movement of the population”.
For its part, the European Union said it was following “developments in Guinea-Bissau with concern” and called for a “rapid return to constitutional order” in the country and restraint to avoid further violence.
The Coup d’état
The interview comes after a group of military officers announced on Wednesday that they had seized power in Guinea-Bissau and deposed the president, ahead of the release of the results of the November 23 general elections.
The military announced the dismissal of President Umaro Sissoco Embaló, suspended the electoral process, the media, and imposed a curfew, anticipating the release of the results of the November 23 general elections.
The military action aimed, according to them, to stem “a growing threat that could jeopardize democracy and the political stability of the Guinean state,” they explained, referring to “a threat involving state interference, public disorder, and the disintegration of the institutions of the democratic rule of law, a threat that needed to be prevented and stopped.” This was the 10th coup d’état on the African continent since 2020. The governments of Guinea-Conakry, Sudan, Niger, Gabon, and Madagascar have suffered coups in the last five years, while those of Mali and Burkina Faso have experienced this outcome twice.
Source: A Semana
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