GUINEA-BISSAU APPOINTS NEW PRIME MINISTER AFTER COUP BID

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Guinea-Bissau On Wednesday, in response to what he has called a “coup attempt,” President Umaro Sissoco Embalo fired the prime minister and selected a replacement right away.

Geraldo Joao Martins “is dismissed from his post as prime minister,” according to a presidential directive released to AFP. The decree was immediately put into effect.

He was succeeded by Rui Duarte Barros, according to another decision.

On the evening of November 30, fighting broke out between the presidential guard’s special troops and national guard members in the capital, Bissau, killing two.

Embalo dissolved parliament and declared that there had been an “attempted coup,” stating that new elections would be held since the country of West Africa was in a state of crisis.

In addition, he declared that Martins would stay in his position while assuming responsibility for the ministries of the military and the interior.

Martins and Barros are both part of the PAIGC party, which is in charge of the opposition alliance that emerged victorious in the June polls.

Following a term as finance minister, Barros led a transitional administration as prime minister in the early 2000s.

There have been numerous coups and coup attempts in the two-million-person nation since it separated from Portugal in 1974.

Embalo withstood a plot to remove him in February 2022 after being elected to a five-year term in December 2019.

AFP