BISSAU: Guinea-Bissau’s military installed General Horta Nta Na Man as transitional president on Thursday, an army statement said, a day after soldiers toppled the civilian leadership in a swift power grab that followed a fiercely contested presidential vote.
The self-styled “High Military Command for the Restoration of Order” announced in a televised statement on Wednesday that they had ousted President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, in the latest episode of unrest in the coup-prone country.
Radio France Internationale reported that Nta would serve as president for a one-year transitional period.
Wednesday’s army takeover came a day before provisional results were expected to be announced in the race between Embalo and Fernando Dias, a 47-year-old political newcomer who had emerged as Embalo’s top challenger to run the West African state, a hub for cocaine trafficking.
Ahead of the coup announcement, witnesses said gunfire rang out in the capital, Bissau, for about an hour near the electoral commission headquarters and presidential palace.
