Heavy gunfire was heard on Friday morning (file photo). Image: BBC
The capital of Guinea-Bissau has been rocked by gunshots.
On Friday morning, heavy gunfire was heard in Guinea-Bissau’s capital after National Guard forces went to free a minister and a top state official who were being held in jail.
The officials were taken by members of the National Guard, who then ran away to bases south of the city.
Then, after failed efforts to talk, special forces stepped in and there was a gunfight.
Later, things are said to have calmed down.
An army official told AFP that the “situation is completely under control” and that the leader of the group of soldiers who were trying to free the two men is now being held by the army.
Souleiman Seidi, the finance minister, and António Monteiro, the secretary of state for the budget, were both arrested while probes were going on into claims that $10 million (£8 million) in state funds were taken out without permission.
An anti-corruption investigation asked them about the payments to 11 companies on Thursday afternoon.
During a Monday sitting of parliament, the leader of the country’s main opposition party said that the business owners were connected to important people in the government alliance.
Mr. Seidi said that the payments were legal.
Local media said that Mr. Seidi and Mr. Monteiro were arrested and held on Thursday after being questioned so as not to put the investigations at risk.
The privately owned news site O Democrata said that later that same night, National Guard forces broke into the police cells near Bandim market “with AK-47 weapons and bazookas” and freed the officials who were being held.
It said that the National Guard took them somewhere they didn’t know.
President Umaro Sissoco Embalo is not in the country at the moment because he is in Dubai for the COP28 climate meeting.
The AFP news agency said that on Friday morning, regional stabilization troops sent by the West African group Ecowas were seen walking the streets.
Since it got its freedom from Portugal in 1974, Guinea-Bissau has been through a number of coups and failed coups.
During a coup attempt in February of last year, the president said he had been under heavy shooting for five hours. Eleven people died in the attempt.
He said the attack had something to do with drug trade in the country, but he didn’t say what.
Some people, though, didn’t believe the official account of what happened. They had questions like who was really behind the attack, how many people were involved, and who was in charge.