Guinea-Bissau rocked by coup

MILITARY officials in Guinea-Bissau said they had seized “total control” of the coup-prone west African country this week, arresting its president, closing its borders and suspending its electoral process three days after general elections.

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Heavy gunfire rang out near the presidential palace earlier in the day, with men in military uniform taking over the main road leading to the building.

In the early afternoon, General Denis N’Canha, head of the presidential military office, told journalists that a command “composed of all branches of the armed forces” was assuming control of the country “until further notice”.

He read the announcement seated at a table and surrounded by armed soldiers.

President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, who had been favoured to win reelection in last Sunday’s polls, was arrested and being held at general-staff headquarters where he was being “well-treated’, a military source said.

A senior officer who also confirmed the arrest added that Embalo had been detained along “with the chief of staff and the minister of the interior’.

Opposition leader Domingos Simoes Pereira, who was barred from last weekend's presidential election by the Supreme Court, was also arrested this week, according to two sources close to him.

Unable to run, Pereira cast his support behind opposition candidate Fernando Dias. He and Embalo had both already declared victory in the presidential race, with official provisional results expected late yesterday.