Guinea-Bissau military seizes power as vote count looms, president arrested

Soldiers in Guinea-Bissau seized power on Wednesday, November 26, announcing on state television that they had suspended the country's political institutions and arrested President Umaro Sissoco Embaló just four days before presidential election results were due to be published. The president himself confirmed to French media: "I have been deposed."

The takeover—Guinea-Bissau's ninth coup or coup attempt since independence in 1974—extends a wave of military seizures of power across West Africa that has seen juntas consolidate control in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger since 2020. It also plunges one of the world's poorest countries deeper into a legitimacy crisis that predated the vote: the main opposition party had been barred from fielding a presidential candidate, and both incumbent Embaló and his challenger, Fernando Dias da Costa, claimed victory before any results were announced.

A plot discovered, or an election hijacked?

Dinis N'Tchama, speaking as spokesperson for the High Military Command for the Restoration of Order, delivered the junta's justification on state television: officers had uncovered a conspiracy to destabilize the country involving "national politicians," "a well-known drug lord," and foreign actors, alongside attempts to manipulate the November 23 election results. The military suspended all political institutions, closed borders, imposed an overnight curfew, and halted media operations. General Denis N'Canha, head of the military household at the presidency, fronts the High Command as its visible leader.

Multiple reports confirm that arrests swept up the electoral apparatus and the security hierarchy: the head of the National Electoral Commission was detained and the NEC headquarters sealed by soldiers; armed forces chief of staff General Biague Na Ntan and his deputy General Mamadou Touré were taken into custody; Interior Minister Botché Candé was arrested. Opposition candidate Dias da Costa and PAIGC leader Domingos Simões Pereira were also detained. President Embaló told Jeune Afrique he was arrested in a coup led by the army chief of staff and is being held at general-staff headquarters, where he is "well-treated."

Heavy gunfire echoed around the presidential palace, the interior ministry, and the National Electoral Commission offices in Bissau on Wednesday morning. Soldiers blocked roads to the palace; internet disruptions were reported. By afternoon, streets were empty and quiet under the curfew.

But the junta's narrative of patriotic intervention faces a competing claim: a coalition of civil society groups, the Popular Front, accused Embaló and the military of staging a "simulated coup" to prevent the release of results that would show he had lost. That allegation—like the junta's conspiracy theory—remains unverified. What is certain is that Guinea-Bissau entered a 48-hour information fog in which both military spokesmen and political rivals weaponize the language of legitimacy, and the line between putsch and self-coup blurs.

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ECOWAS and the AU face a familiar dilemma

The African Union and ECOWAS observer missions issued a joint statement expressing "deep concern" and calling the military move a "blatant attempt to disrupt the democratic process." They urged immediate release of detained officials and completion of the vote count. The United Nations called for restraint and respect for the rule of law. Portugal, the former colonial power, urged restoration of institutional functioning to allow results to be published.

But regional responses to West Africa's coup wave have been inconsistent. ECOWAS imposed sanctions on Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger—only to see those juntas form a counter-bloc and withdraw from the organization. Fast condemnation has rarely translated into effective pressure or reversal. Guinea-Bissau's junta will test whether the regional architecture has any coercive leverage left, or whether the coup contagion has normalized military rule as a governance fix.

What happens next remains uncertain

Several variables will shape the coming days. Does any faction within the military contest the High Command's move, or is the security apparatus unified? Will detained officials appear publicly, and under what legal or extrajudicial framing? What signals emerge from the streets—protests, support, or enforced silence? How long do internet and media blackouts persist? And will ECOWAS and the AU escalate beyond statements to sanctions, mediation missions, or other leverage?

Past patterns suggest curfews and communication shutdowns aim to fragment opposition and consolidate control. But Guinea-Bissau has a history of contested coups and counter-coups; fragmentation within the officer corps is possible. The electoral path—whether the junta annuls results, promises a transition, or sets new timelines—will clarify its intent.

What is already clear is that Guinea-Bissau's chronic instability has entered a new phase, one that mirrors the broader erosion of democratic norms across the region. Whether the military acted to thwart electoral fraud or to hijack an unfavorable outcome, the suspension of the vote count on the eve of results announcement signals a collapse of the minimal procedural legitimacy required for any transition. For a country that has never completed a presidential term without upheaval, the stakes are not merely about one election—they are about whether civilian rule remains a viable proposition at all.