The African Union and ECOWAS suspended the membership of Guinea-Bissau after the military coup. The UN Secretary General condemned the intervention as a violation of democratic principles.
The African Union (AU) on Friday suspended with immediate effect the membership of its bodies in the West African Republic of Guinea-Bissau, where a military coup and ouster of President Umar Sissoc Embaló took place on Wednesday. TASR informs about it with reference to the AFP agency, which was informed by the chairman of the AU Commission, Djibouti diplomat Mahmoud Ali Youssouf.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) also suspended the country’s membership in all its decision-making bodies in response to the coup.
International reactions to the coup
UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the coup in Guinea-Bissau as an “unacceptable violation of democratic principles”.
The army seized power in Guinea-Bissau a day before the electoral commission planned to announce the results of Sunday’s presidential and parliamentary elections. General Horta N’Tam, the current Chief of General Staff of the Army, was appointed as head of state during the transitional period, which is expected to last one year. In the meantime, Embaló left Guinea-Bissau and went to neighboring Senegal.
Historical upheavals and poverty
After the coups, AU also suspended the membership of other African countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Sudan and Madagascar.
Guinea-Bissau, with a population of approximately 2.2 million, is located on the west coast of Africa and is one of the poorest countries in the world. There have been at least nine coups between 1974, when it gained independence from Portugal, and 2020, when President Embaló took office. Embaló claims that they also tried to overthrow him three times. According to his opponents, these are fabrications that served him as a pretext for repression.
