By: ThinkBusiness Africa
Senior army officers announced on Wednesday that they had seized control of the West African nation “until further notice,” just days after a contentious general election for which official results are still pending. Reuters reported.
Heavy gunfire erupted across the capital, Bissau, on Wednesday, specifically near the Presidential Palace, Later in the day, President Umaro Sissoco Embaló told the press that he had been detained by the army chief of staff, declaring the action a coup d’état.
The military takeover comes directly on the heels of the general election held on Sunday, November 23, 2025.
Both the incumbent President Embaló and his main challenger, Fernando Dias da Costa, prematurely declared outright victory on Monday, each claiming to have surpassed the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff, despite the National Electoral Commission (CNE) having yet to release provisional results, which were expected by November 27.
Embaló had dissolved the opposition-controlled parliament in December 2023 following an earlier alleged coup attempt, ruling by decree ever since.
The coup attempt places Guinea-Bissau in a growing line of West African nations—including Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger—that have recently experienced military regimes through coup, undermining regional efforts to uphold constitutional rule.
