Guinea-Bissau’s military appointed a general as the country’s new leader for the duration of one year Thursday, a day after seizing power, arresting the president, and derailing the announcement of election results.
Soldiers patrolled the area around the presidential palace in Bissau on Thursday morning, and a few people were seen walking along the main road leading to the building, where heavy gunfire rang out the previous day.
After taking the oath of office in a ceremony at the military’s headquarters, General Horta N’Tam, chief of staff of the army, declared that “I have just been sworn in to lead the High Command,” AFP journalists observed.
Dozens of heavily armed soldiers were deployed at the scene as he told a press conference that actions were necessary “to block operations that aimed to threaten our democracy”.
A group of officers on Wednesday said they had seized “total control” of the coup-prone country, suspending the electoral process as Guinea-Bissau awaited the results of last Sunday’s vote, which President Umaro Sissoco Embalo had been expected to win.