General Horta Inta-A appoints new prime minister amid growing condemnation of military coup in West African nation.
Guinea-Bissau’s new military ruler has moved to consolidate power days after a coup deposed President Umaro Sissoco Embalo.
In a decree on Friday, General Horta Inta-A announced the appointment of Finance Minister Ilidio Vieira Te as the West African country’s new prime minister.
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The people of Guinea-Bissau “expect a lot” of their new leaders, Inta-A told Te during a brief swearing-in ceremony, saying he hoped the new military government and the prime minister would “continue to work hand-in-hand”.
Both Inta-A – who was sworn in as Guinea-Bissau’s transitional president on Thursday – and Te are close to Embalo, the deposed president.
Te previously served in his government and as the campaign director for Embalo’s party in last Sunday’s presidential election.
Friday’s announcement comes just days after military officers said they had taken “total control” of the country during a televised address on the eve of the expected release of provisional election results.
Embalo had been seeking re-election against his main challenger, Fernando Dias. Both candidates had declared victory in advance of the results, which have still not been released.
Regional and world leaders have condemned the military coup, one of several in Guinea-Bissau since it gained independence from Portugal in 1974.
The African Union announced on Friday it was suspending Guinea-Bissau “with immediate effect”, shortly after the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) froze Guinea-Bissau out of “all decision-making bodies”.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the military’s “unacceptable violation of democratic principles” while the European Union urged “a swift return to the constitutional order and the resumption of the electoral process”.
The prime minister of Senegal, where Embalo has taken refuge since the coup, condemned the putsch as a “sham” and called for the electoral process to be allowed to continue.
“The [electoral] commission must be able to declare the winner,” Ousmane Sonko told lawmakers on Friday.
Dias, the opposition candidate, told the AFP news agency on Thursday that he believed he had beaten Embalo in Sunday’s presidential election. He alleged that Embalo had “organised” the power grab to prevent him from taking office.
Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, who was in Guinea-Bissau during the coup as the head of a West African elections observer group, also accused Embalo of staging a “ceremonial coup” to stay in power.
“A military doesn’t take over governments and allow the sitting president that they overthrew to address press conferences and announce that he has been arrested,” Jonathan told reporters.
Calm returns to capital
UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on Friday that at least 18 people, including government officers, magistrates and opposition politicians, had been arbitrarily detained during the coup, and most were still being held incommunicado.
“I am deeply alarmed by reports of human rights violations in Guinea-Bissau following the coup, including arbitrary arrests and detentions of Government officials and opposition leaders, as well as threats against and intimidation of media houses and journalists,” Turk said in a statement.
He called for the immediate release of all those detained, as well as for the return of constitutional order.
“The military authorities must ensure they fully respect everyone’s fundamental freedoms, including the right to peaceful assembly,” Turk added.
Meanwhile, calm returned to the capital, Bissau, on Friday as the new military rulers lifted an overnight curfew that had been imposed during the coup.
People and vehicles were circulating through Bissau’s streets after army checkpoints were lifted. The main stock exchange and markets in outlying districts, as well as commercial banks, have also reopened.
“I resumed my work because if I stay home, I will have nothing to eat,” Boubacar Embalo, a 25-year-old street vendor, told the news agency AFP.
