African Union suspends Guinea-Bissau over coup
AU Commission Chairperson, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, said the continental body had decided to "suspend with immediate effect" Guinea-Bissau until constitutional order is restored.
The African Union (AU) on Friday suspended Guinea-Bissau from all its decision-making bodies after the military toppled outgoing President Umaro Sissoco Embaló in yet another of the country's chronic bouts of political instability.
AU Commission Chairperson, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, said the continental body had decided to "suspend with immediate effect" Guinea-Bissau until constitutional order is restored.
More To Read
- Kagame says some coups are justifiable if they address governance failures
- Deposed Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Embaló flown to Senegal as coup deepens
- ECOWAS suspends Guinea-Bissau after post-election coup
- Guinea-Bissau: Who is toppling whom, how and why?
- Karua accuses AU of double standards over Guinea-Bissau coup, Tanzania election crisis
- Guinea-Bissau military appoints Gen Horta N’Ta as transitional leader after coup
The coup unfolded three days after presidential and legislative elections, whose results were expected on Thursday but were abruptly halted when soldiers seized power, detained President Embaló, and installed General Horta Nta Naman as interim leader for a one-year transition.
West Africa's regional bloc, ECOWAS, has issued its own suspension of Guinea-Bissau, the fifth such action it has taken against a member state in just four years.
The bloc condemned the military takeover, demanded the "immediate and unconditional" release of Embaló, and called for a resumption of the interrupted electoral process.
It also announced the deployment of a high-level mediation mission and urged the army to return to barracks.
ECOWAS has struggled to contain a wave of coups stretching from Mali and Burkina Faso to Niger and now Guinea-Bissau, testing the bloc's credibility as guardian of democratic norms in West Africa.
Senegal confirmed Friday that Embaló had landed in Dakar aboard a private aircraft after what the country's foreign ministry described as an ECOWAS-facilitated evacuation.
Senegal's prime minister, Ousmane Sonko, criticised the coup and called for elections to proceed without delay.
Guinea-Bissau, long marked by coups, mutinies, and narco-politics, has struggled to sustain a stable constitutional order since independence.
The latest upheaval deepens concerns that West Africa's democratic retrenchment is entering a more entrenched phase — with regional institutions repeatedly forced into reactive crisis management.
Top Stories Today
