The Guinea-Bissau army announced on Friday that it had arrested several senior officers. President Umaro Sissoco Embaló, contacted by Jeune Afrique, assured that "everything is under control."

“This action was aimed at disrupting the electoral process,” declared the Deputy Chief of Staff, General Mamadu Turé, without specifying the number of officers arrested or the actions these soldiers had planned. Several other officers are on the run, General Turé asserted. Brigadier General Daba Nawalna, director of a military training center located about 30 kilometers from the capital, Bissau, is among those arrested.

Reached by Jeune Afrique on Friday afternoon, President Umaro Sissoco Embaló stated that it was an "attempted coup to prevent the elections from taking place." "The investigation is underway. Everything is under control," he told us.

Four coups d'état

The campaign for the presidential and legislative elections of November 23 in Guinea-Bissau is due to open this Saturday, November 1, for three weeks, in the unprecedented absence of the historic party that led to independence, the PAIGC, and its candidate, Domingos Simões Pereira, the main opponent of the current president.

Political stability is one of the major issues in this election in a country that has experienced four coups, 17 attempted coups, and a rapid succession of governments since its independence. "We will never allow anyone to disrupt the electoral process. If civilians are involved, we will arrest them as well," General Turé continued.