Clashes broke out between two army groups on Thursday evening following the release of two government officials from custody.

Gunfire and clashes that broke out in Guinea-Bissau’s capital this week were an “attempted coup,” President Umaro Sissoco Embalo said.

Clashes between the National Guard and special forces of the Presidential Guard broke out in Bissau on Thursday evening and continued on Friday after National Guard soldiers released two senior government officials who were being held in corruption investigations.

At least two people were killed in the unrest in the small West African country.

Embalo, who attended the COP28 climate conference in Dubai, arrived in Bissau on Saturday and said an “attempted coup” had prevented him from returning.

“I must tell you that this act will have serious consequences,” he added.

At midday on Friday, calm returned to the country, which has been marked by instability in the past, after it was announced that the army had captured Colonel Victor Tchongo, the commander of the National Guard.

On Saturday, the security presence in Bissau was reduced, but soldiers could still be seen around certain strategic buildings such as the presidential palace, the Criminal Investigation Department headquarters and some ministries.

Some officers and soldiers of the National Guard had fled into the interior of the country, the army said on Saturday, without giving any numbers.

ECOWAS condemns violence

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said it “strongly condemns the violence and any attempts to disrupt the constitutional order and rule of law in Guinea-Bissau.”

“ECOWAS also calls for the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators of the incident in accordance with the law,” the Abuja-based organization added in its statement on Saturday.

The regional bloc also expressed “full solidarity with the people and constitutional authorities of Guinea-Bissau.”

A spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, called for calm on Friday and asked security forces and the army to “continue to refrain from interfering in national politics.”

Corruption allegations

The AFP news agency reported, citing military and intelligence sources, that members of the National Guard stormed a police station on Thursday to release Finance Minister Souleiman Seidi and Finance Minister Antonio Monteiro.

The duo was brought in for questioning on Thursday morning over the alleged withdrawal of $10 million from the state treasury. They were arrested on the orders of prosecutors appointed by the president.

They were later arrested again after the army removed them from National Guard control.

The National Guard is under the control of the Interior Ministry, which, like most ministries in the country, is dominated by the PAIGC party, whose coalition won the June 2023 elections.

There were at least 10 Coups or attempted coups in Guinea-Bissau since independence from Portugal in 1974, with only one democratically elected president serving a full term.

Embalo, who was elected to a five-year term in December 2019, survived a failed fall in February 2022.

West Africa has been hit by several military takeovers in the last three years, including two in Mali, one in Guinea, two in Burkina Faso and one in Gabon.