Bissau, 26 November 2025
Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embaló was detained by armed men on Wednesday in what he described as a military coup attempt, just days after a highly contested election marred by the exclusion of the main opposition.
Heavy gunfire rang out across the capital, Bissau, near the presidential palace as the detention took place. Both Embaló and his challenger, Fernando Dias, had already declared victory in Sunday’s presidential vote despite official results not yet being released.
The election was overshadowed by the Supreme Court’s decision to bar the historic opposition party PAIGC and its leader Domingos Simões Pereira from standing, a move widely condemned as an attempt to rig the process in the president’s favour.
Guinea-Bissau, one of West Africa’s most politically unstable countries with a long history of coups, has now plunged into fresh turmoil. The situation remains tense, with no official statement from the military and sporadic shooting reported into the evening.
