Guinea-Bissau military appoints General Horta N’Tam to lead for one year after seizing power and halting presidential election results
Bissau, Guinea-Bissau, Thursday – The Guinea-Bissau military appointed General Horta N’Tam to lead the country for one year, a day after seizing power, arresting President Umaro Sissoco Embaló, and halting the release of election results.
Also read: Military coup turmoil hits Guinea-Bissau after president’s seizure
General N’Tam, army chief of staff, 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 reported.
Dozens of heavily armed soldiers attended the event as N’Tam asserted that the military’s actions were necessary “to block operations that aimed to threaten our democracy.”
The military initially announced on Wednesday that it had assumed “total control” of the nation, suspending the electoral process following last Sunday’s vote, which Embaló was expected to win. The officers cited a discovered plot involving drug traffickers and weapons intended “to alter the constitutional order.
All media operations were suspended, a mandatory curfew imposed, and borders closed, although General Lassana Mansali said Thursday that land, air, and sea borders had reopened.
Embaló and several senior officials, including the minister of the interior, were detained at the general staff headquarters and reportedly “well treated,” according to military sources.
Opposition leader Domingos Simões Pereira, barred from the election by the Supreme Court, was also arrested.
Guinea-Bissau, sandwiched between Guinea and Senegal, has a history of political instability, experiencing four coups since independence from Portugal in 1974. The nation is also a key hub for drug trafficking between Latin America and Europe.
Regional and international actors condemned the coup. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) reaffirmed its “strict zero-tolerance for unconstitutional changes of government,” while UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed “deep concern.”
Portugal, the former colonial ruler, urged restraint, and Reporters Without Borders criticised the media suspension as a violation of the population’s right to information.
The military justified its intervention as a measure to protect the constitutional order, with General N’Tam emphasising that “necessary measures are urgent and important and require everyone’s participation.”
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West Africa has witnessed multiple military takeovers in recent years, with coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Guinea, highlighting the persistent fragility of the region’s political systems.
