UN Secretary-General António Guterres blasted Guinea-Bissau’s military coup on Nov 26—its ninth since 1974—as a “direct assault” on democracy, where Brig Gen Dinis Incanha’s forces arrested President Umaro Sissoco Embaló at the palace amid gunfire at electoral HQ and interior ministry, suspended the Nov 23 polls (results due Nov 27), sealed borders, imposed curfew, and cut internet. Guterres demands immediate release of detained officials like armed forces chiefs, electoral head, opposition’s Fernando Dias da Costa (who escaped vowing resistance), and safe restoration of constitutional rule via legal channels—not guns.
Backing ECOWAS (which suspended Bissau) and West African Elders Forum, Guterres urged restraint, human rights respect, and dialogue amid claims the coup foiled a politician-drug lord election-rigging plot; Gen Horta N’Tam now leads a one-year transition after Senegal mediated Embaló’s Dakar flight.
The volatile 2.2M-pop nation plagued by prior failed plots against Embaló (2022/2023) risks wider instability as opposition demands results release.
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