- Saudi crown prince says no Israel ties without Palestinian state
- Canada to further cut international student, foreign worker permits
- YouTube launches new TV-focused tools for creators
- White Sox heading for worst season in MLB history
- China the top challenge in US history: senior diplomat
- Hong Kong democracy tycoon's son warns time running out
- New migraine drugs no better than cheap painkillers: big study
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs again denied bail in sex trafficking case
- Brewers clinch division title as MLB playoff race heats up
- Man City blunted by 'giant' Inter in Champions League stalemate
- US stocks dip despite larger Fed interest rate cut
- Man City held by Inter as PSG pinch win in Champions League
- All Blacks recall Beauden Barrett for Australia Test
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 20, wound 450
- Spurs late show saves Postecoglou blushes at Coventry
- PSG snatch late goal to beat Champions League debutants Girona
- Gittens' late double gives Dortmund Champions League win at Brugge
- Man City blunted by Inter in Champions League stalemate
- Hidden talent: French Olympic star Marchand opts for disguise
- MrBeast named in California lawsuit over 'Beast Games' show
- Gauff splits with Gilbert as coach after 14-month run
- Hundreds of thousands at risk in Sudan's El-Fasher: UN
- Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to new sex crime charge
- Venezuelan opposition candidate says letter conceding election was coerced
- Ukraine official claims Russian advance in Kursk has been 'stopped'
- X update allows app to bypass Brazil ban: internet providers
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 14, wound 450
- US Fed makes aggressive rate cut, weeks before election
- Arsenal's Odegaard faces lengthy injury absence
- India coal expansion risks massive methane growth: report
- China the top challenge in US history, top diplomat says
- US Fed makes larger half-point cut in first reduction since 2020
- Ronaldo's Al Nassr appoint former AC Milan boss Pioli
- Ainslie 'relieved' as British book place in Louis Vuitton Cup final
- Struggling Roma replace sacked icon De Rossi with Ivan Juric
- Women's NBA will add 15th team in Portland in 2026
- Brazil fires need harsher punishment: environmental police boss
- Boeing to start large temporary furloughs amid Seattle strike
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill nine, wound 300
- 'Emergency' declared over falling UK butterfly numbers
- McIlroy outlines threats to golf peace deal
- Stock markets, dollar slip before US rate decision
- Russian advance in Kursk 'stopped': Ukraine official to AFP
- UN members demand end to 'unlawful' Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories
- Snapchat pushes 'safer' platform image, but not everyone agrees
- Three dead, 100 wounded in new wave of Lebanon device explosions
- So where does the oceans' plastic waste come from?
- Allied war heroes buried in Netherlands... 80 years on
- Marsh coy over Australia's choice to open alongside Head
- New London sculpture pays tribute to trans community
RBGPF | 5.79% | 60.5 | $ | |
JRI | 0.45% | 13.44 | $ | |
BCC | 1.33% | 137.06 | $ | |
BCE | 3.09% | 35.61 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.02% | 25.055 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.12% | 24.98 | $ | |
NGG | -0.46% | 70.05 | $ | |
SCS | 0.71% | 14.11 | $ | |
RELX | -0.82% | 47.37 | $ | |
RYCEF | 1.37% | 6.55 | $ | |
RIO | -0.02% | 62.91 | $ | |
VOD | 0.49% | 10.23 | $ | |
GSK | -0.31% | 42.43 | $ | |
AZN | 0.06% | 78.58 | $ | |
BP | -0.37% | 32.43 | $ | |
BTI | -0.34% | 37.88 | $ |
Calm returns to Guinea-Bissau capital after failed putsch
Guinea-Bissau's capital appeared calm on Wednesday after an attempted coup the previous day, AFP journalists said, with soldiers patrolling the streets of the West African city.
Heavily-armed men on Tuesday afternoon surrounded government buildings in the capital Bissau, where President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and his prime minister were believed to have been attending a cabinet meeting.
Sissoco, 49, later told reporters that he had been unharmed during a five-hour gun battle that he described as a plot to wipe out the government.
Several people were killed in the attack, the president said.
Guinea-Bissau is a notoriously unstable country, suffering four military coups since independence from Portugal in 1974.
On Wednesday, life was slowly returning to the streets of Bissau as shops and banks reopened, according to AFP correspondents.
Soldiers were patrolling the streets, however, and had also blocked access to the Palace of Government complex where the attack took place.
Souleymane Ndiaye, a 23-year-old Senegalese who sells clothes in Bissau's largest market, said he had returned to his stall on Wednesday morning but that customers were scarce.
Noelho Barboza, a carpenter, said that Tuesday's events risked throwing the country into reverse.
"We will no longer have the confidence of investors," the 27-year-old said.
- 'Kill the president' -
Guinea-Bissau is an impoverished coastal state of around two million people, south of Senegal, that saw its most recent military coup in 2012.
In 2014, the country vowed to return to democracy, but it has enjoyed little stability since and the armed forces wield substantial clout.
At a news conference on Tuesday, President Embalo said that assailants had tried to "kill the president of the republic and the entire cabinet."
"The attackers could have spoken to me before these bloody events that have seriously injured many and claimed lives," he added, appearing clam.
The exact death toll from the attack remains unclear. So do the identity and motives of the attackers.
But Embalo said that the attack was linked to decisions he has taken "to fight drug trafficking and corruption."
Guinea-Bissau suffers from endemic corruption, and is known as a hub for cocaine trafficking between Latin America and Europe.
- Wave of coups -
Both the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States on Tuesday condemned what they termed an "attempted coup."
The events sparked fear that the country would join the ranks of other West African governments that have fallen to military coups recently.
In Mali, the army seized power in 2020. Guinea's military followed suit in September last year, ousting elected president Alpha Conde.
Then on January 24, Burkina Faso's army also announced it had deposed President Roch Marc Christian Kabore and taken control of the country.
N.Fournier--BTB