The ousted Guinea-Bissau president, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, arrived in Brazzaville, the capital of Congo, on Saturday, days after losing power to military officers, Congolese government sources confirmed to AFP.

“Embalo arrived in Brazzaville late in the morning on a private jet,” a source close to the Congolese government said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Presidency insiders said Embalo intends to remain in the country, popularly known as Congo-Brazzaville, amid growing speculation about his closeness to President Denis Sassou Nguesso.

Back in the West African capital Bissau, tension escalated after the region’s most powerful opposition party, PAIGC, raised a formal alarm over an invasion of its headquarters.

The party further condemned the invasion, calling it a breach of the country’s constitutional safeguards and a direct assault on democratic institutions.

While the Guinean military has not revealed the exact reason for the takeover, the officers earlier said their motive was to restore order following intelligence on drug lords plotting to destabilise the state.

But opposition leaders believe the takeover was orchestrated from within to abruptly halt election result announcements.

Opposition candidate, Fernando Dias Da Costa, who challenged Embalo and was arrested at campaign headquarters on the day of the coup, said he had escaped to a building behind military headquarters before being flown out on a Senegalese chartered flight.

One of the biggest twists came when the junta immediately appointed General Horta N’Tam, considered a close ally of Embalo, to lead the one-year transitional administration that will run until 2026.

Elsewhere in Bissau, clashes broke out between young residents and law enforcement officers in a suburb not far from Dias’s campaign office, leaving streets momentarily blocked.

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