President Umaro Sissoco Embalo on Monday dissolved Guinea-Bissau’s parliament after meeting with the Council of State, the president’s consultative body, according to a presidential decree.
According to the decree, an attack by a heavily armed National Guard group on the judicial police building in the capital Bissau last week aimed to “subvert the constitutional order” and resulted in a tragic loss of life.
Clashes erupted between elements of the National Guard and special forces of the Presidential Guard in Bissau on Thursday night and continued on Friday as a group of National Guard soldiers attempted to free a detained minister from the judicial police building.
Colonel Vitor Tchongo, the National Guard commander, along with several others from the unit, was arrested on Friday morning by the military police.
Embalo said Saturday the deadly violence in the capital was an “attempted coup” with “serious consequences for all those involved,” upon his return from Dubai, where he attended a UN climate conference.
This marked the second instance of Embalo dissolving Guinea-Bissau’s parliament since assuming office in 2020. Earlier, in May 2022, he dissolved the parliament due to tensions between the legislative body and the presidency.
In February 2022, Guinea-Bissau’s army members staged a failed coup against Embalo.
