WNAM MONITORING: Ousted Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo has arrived “safe and sound” in Senegal aboard a government-chartered aircraft, Senegal’s Foreign Ministry said late Thursday.
“An aircraft was chartered by the Government to travel to Bissau in order to assist in this repatriation operation. This allowed for the safe and sound arrival in Senegal of President Umaro Sissoco Embalo,” the ministry said in a statement.
Dakar said it has been in constant contact with Bissau-Guinean actors since the political crisis and coup, focusing on the release of Embalo and others and reopening borders to aid the repatriation of detainees and various electoral observation missions.
The statement came after an extraordinary virtual summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on the military coup.
On Wednesday, in a statement broadcast on state television, a group of military officers identifying themselves as the “High Military Command for the Restoration of National Security and Public Order” announced that they had “assumed full powers of the state.”
The military suspended all media activities, halted the ongoing electoral process, closed all borders, and imposed a nine-hour curfew starting at 9 pm local time (2100GMT).
The heads of the electoral observer missions urged the African Union and ECOWAS to take the necessary steps to restore constitutional order in the West African country.
The coup was staged as independent candidate Fernando Dias and incumbent President Embalo’s camps both claimed victory Monday in the presidential election as the country awaited the official results.
The High Military Command for the Restoration of National Security and Public Order appointed Gen. Horta Inta-A as the transitional president of Guinea-Bissau on Thursday.
