Surviving Attempted Coup, President Of Guinea-Bissau: Attempt To Kill President, Prime Minister And Cabinet

President Guinea-Bissau Umaro Sissoco Embalo. (Wikimedia Commons/Palácio do Planalto)

JAKARTA - Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo survived an attempted coup on Tuesday but said many members of the security forces had died in repelling attacks on democracy that may be linked to drug trafficking.

Earlier, loud gunfire was heard near the government compound where President Embalo was chairing a cabinet meeting. The situation was unclear for several hours, with the African Union and West African bloc ECOWAS condemning what they called an "attempted coup".

The fast-moving incident in the former Portuguese colony on the West African coast comes more than a week after the military in Burkina Faso, another country in the region, toppled the president there.

Appearing in the evening in a video posted on the Guinea-Bissau Presidency's Facebook page, President Embalo said the attackers had tried to enter the compound, right after a cabinet meeting but had been refused.

"It was not just a coup. It was an attempt to kill the president, prime minister, and all the cabinet," he said, citing Reuters on February 2.

He further explained that the attacks were "well prepared and organized and can also be linked to people involved in drug trafficking, without providing further details.

Poverty-stricken Guinea-Bissau is seen by the United Nations as Latin America's main road point for cocaine to Europe. US and European authorities have long suspected that some in the country's military were involved in drug trafficking.

Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo. (Wikimedia Commons/Palácio do Planalto)

President Embalo, who has enjoyed strong support from the military during previous political crises, in his video stated the army was not involved in Tuesday's attack.

"I can assure you, no camp has joined this attempted coup. It is isolated. It is related to the people we have fought," he said, without elaborating.

President Embalo began chairing an extraordinary cabinet meeting around 10 a.m., entering the government palace under tight security, diplomatic sources said. While he was inside the building, gunfire started outside.

A cabinet meeting was held to prepare for the upcoming ECOWAS summit in response to last week's military takeover of Burkina Faso, the latest in a series of coups across the region in the past 18 months.

He said arrests of those involved had begun, but he did not know how many.

Meanwhile, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said on his official website he had spoken to President Embalo by telephone and had "expressed his strong condemnation of these attacks on the constitutional order of Guinea-Bissau".

Prior to President Embalo's video, the African Union said several members of the government were detained and had asked the military to release them, without providing details.

Political instability has plagued Guinea-Bissau for decades, with nine previous or attempted coups since independence in 1974.

During the hours of confusion on Tuesday, the Portuguese embassy had urged its citizens in Guinea-Bissau to stay at home. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was deeply concerned about what was happening in the capital Bissau.

"It seems increasingly difficult to oppose the idea of coup contagion," said Eric Humphrey-Smith, an analyst at risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft.

"When added to the successful coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Chad in the last year, there is no doubt that West African leaders are nervously looking over their shoulders."