Coup scare in Guinea-Bissau: order restored after overnight clashes, heavy gunfire in the capital

Guinea-Bissau’s army announced on Friday (1 December) it had detained the leader of a group of security forces involved in overnight clashes in the capital, during which the latter tried to free a detained opposition minister and a senior state official.
Order has been restored in the area near Guinea-Bissau’s presidential palace following an overnight exchange of gunfire between two army factions that broke out after national guard soldiers freed an opposition minister who had been detained for suspected misuse of public funds, the army has said. Members of the National Guard reportedly freed finance minister Souleiman Seidi and treasury secretary Antonio Monteiro from police custody, both of whom had been taken in for questioning about the reported withdrawal of $10m from state coffers. The move to free the men took place under the auspices of the head of the national guard, Victor Tchongo, who was arrested earlier on Friday, but has since been freed, while Seidi and Monteiro are back in custody, a police source said.
There have been at least 10 coups or attempted coups in Guinea-Bissau, a West African nation of around 2 million inhabitants that sits between Senegal and Guinea, since it gained independence from Portugal in 1974. At least six people were killed during a failed coup attempt that aimed to overthrow the incumbent President Umaro Sissoco Embalo in February last year. West Africa has been hit by multiple military takeovers over the past three years, including two in Mali, one in Guinea, two in Burkina Faso and one in Gabon.