Senegal’s prime minister and Nigeria’s former president have both said they believe the ousting of Guinea-Bissau’s president this week was staged.
Umaro Sissoco Embaló’s apparent removal by the military on Wednesday came a day before authorities were due to announce election results.
The military has since suspended the electoral process and blocked the release of the results, insisting it thwarted a plot to destabilise the politically unstable country.
Senegal’s PM Ousmane Sonko and Nigeria’s ex-leader Goodluck Jonathan did not provide evidence to support their claim that the coup was fabricated. Embaló has previously faced accusations of using crises to quash dissent.
Some local civil society groups have accused Embaló of masterminding a “simulated coup” against himself with the help of the military, saying it was a ruse to block election results from coming out in case he lost.
Embaló has not responded to the allegations.
The 53-year-old former president arrived in neighbouring Senegal on a chartered military flight late on Thursday following his release by the military forces who toppled his government.
Nigeria’s Jonathan, who led a team of election observers from the West African Elders Forum to Guinea-Bissau, said the incident “was not a coup”.
He described it as a “ceremonial coup”, questioning the events that preceded it and why it was Embaló who first announced his own overthrow. The latter phoned French TV station France 24 and said: “I have been deposed.”
Jonathan contrasted this with how other leaders in the region were ousted in recent coups.
Meanwhile, Senegal’s Sonko told lawmakers that “what happened in Guinea-Bissau was a sham”.
Both men have demanded the results of the presidential election be released.
Their statements add to opposition claims in Guinea-Bissau that the coup was contrived, though no-one has so far presented evidence to support this.
Embaló has said he has survived multiple coup attempts during his time in office – though critics have previously accused him of fabricating crises in order to crack down on dissent.
He dissolved Guinea-Bissau’s parliament after one attempted coup in December 2023 and the country has not had a sitting legislature since then.
On Friday, Guinea-Bissau’s transitional leader Gen Horta N’Tam appointed Ilidio Vieira Té, previously the finance minister, as the new prime minister.
Additionally, the African Union suspended Guinea-Bissau’s membership on Friday because of the unconstitutional military takeover, AFP reports.
The West African bloc Ecowas took a similar action, while urging the military to return to the barracks.
Guinea-Bissau is a coup-prone West African nation which is also strained by drug trafficking.
The military said they were taking power to thwart a plot by unnamed politicians who had “the support of a well-known drug baron” to destabilise the country.
A mother of three told the BBC that it was not the first military takeover she had lived through, but had nonetheless come as a surprise as people were expecting to hear about the outcome of the election, which had an estimated voter turnout of more than 65%.
“We heard gunfire. We ran away. We tried to pack our bags to go home,” she said.
Another resident of the capital, Bissau, said he was unhappy about the situation.
“This doesn’t help anyone because it puts the country into chaos,” Mohamed Sylla told the BBC.
But reactions have been mixed, with some residents praising the army and hoping for an orderly transition.
“I am not against the military regime as long as they improve the living conditions in the country,” Suncar Gassama told the BBC.
