BBC: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A group of military officers say they have seized control of Guinea-Bissau amid reports that the president, Umaro Sissoco Embal\u00f3, has been arrested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shortly after gunshots were heard in the capital, Bissau, government sources told the BBC that Embal\u00f3 had been detained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The officers then appeared on state TV, saying they had suspended the electoral process, as the West African nation awaited the outcome of Sunday’s presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They said they were acting to thwart a plot by unnamed politicians who had “the support of a well-known drug baron” to destabilise the country, and announced the closure of its borders and imposed a night-time curfew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea, the coup-prone country is known as a notorious drug-trafficking hub where the military has been influential since independence from Portugal in 1974.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The election results were expected on Thursday – both Embal\u00f3 and his closest rival Fernando Dias hadclaimed victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dias was supported by former Prime Minister Domingos Pereira, who had been disqualified from running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Late on Wednesday afternoon, Embal\u00f3 told France 24 in a phone call: “I have been deposed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Government sources have since told the BBC that Dias, Pereira and Interior Minister Botch\u00e9 Cand\u00e9 have also been detained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The putschists have taken army chief Gen Biague Na Ntan and his deputy, Gen Mamadou Tour\u00e9, into custody too, the sources say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BBC: A group of military officers say they have seized control of Guinea-Bissau amid reports that the president, Umaro Sissoco Embal\u00f3, has been arrested. Shortly after gunshots were heard in the capital, Bissau, government sources told the BBC that Embal\u00f3 had been detained. The officers then appeared on state TV, saying they had suspended the electoral process, as the West African nation awaited the outcome of Sunday’s presidential election. They said they were acting to thwart a plot by unnamed politicians who had “the support of a well-known drug baron” to destabilise the country, and announced the closure of its… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52520"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52522,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52520\/revisions\/52522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}