Nigeria authorises safety for Guinea-Bissau opposition chief Fernando Dias da Costa, citing ‘imminent risk to his life’.
Revealed On 1 Dec 2025
A delegation from the Financial Neighborhood of West African States (ECOWAS) has visited Guinea-Bissau for mediation talks with leaders of final week’s coup, as regional strain mounts on the navy leaders who seized energy after a disputed election.
The mission, led by ECOWAS chairman and Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio, got here to Guinea-Bissau on Monday to induce the navy authorities for a “full restoration of constitutional order.”
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The navy has tightened restrictions within the nation, banning all demonstrations and strikes.
“We’ve had as we speak very fruitful discussions,” mentioned Sierra Leone’s International Minister Timothy Musa Kabba. “Each side have expressed their totally different considerations.”
Joao Bernardo Vieira, the newly appointed international minister of Guinea-Bissau, mentioned it was “very clearly established” that ECOWAS wouldn’t depart the nation “throughout this troublesome interval.”
“The transitional authorities and the navy will proceed their discussions,” he mentioned.
The coup unfolded three days after the nation’s intently contested presidential election, with each foremost contenders – incumbent President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and opposition candidate Fernando Dias da Costa – claiming victory earlier than provisional outcomes had been because of be introduced. No outcomes have been launched since.
Through the takeover, Embalo advised French media by telephone that he had been deposed and arrested. He has since fled to Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo.
Guinea-Bissau navy officers appointed former military chief of workers Common Horta Inta-A to guide a one-year transition authorities. On Saturday, Inta-a named a brand new 28-member cupboard, made up largely of figures allied with the deposed president.
Nigeria, in the meantime, mentioned its President Bola Tinubu had authorised safety for opposition chief Dias da Costa, citing an “imminent risk to his life”.
In response to a letter despatched to ECOWAS by Nigeria’s minister of international affairs, Dias da Costa is at present on the Nigerian embassy in Bissau. The letter requested an ECOWAS troop deployment to offer safety for the opposition candidate.
Individually, the primary opposition African Independence Celebration for Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) mentioned in a press release that its headquarters had been “illegally invaded by closely armed militia teams” within the capital.
The social gathering had been barred from presenting a presidential candidate within the November 23 election, a transfer criticised by civil rights teams as a part of a wider clampdown on dissent.
ECOWAS, extensively seen as West Africa’s main political and regional authority with 15 member states, responded to the coup by suspending Guinea-Bissau from all its decision-making our bodies “till the restoration of full and efficient constitutional order within the nation”.
Worldwide condemnation has continued to develop, with United Nations Secretary-Common Antonio Guterres saying that he’s gravely involved and condemning the navy takeover, warning that ignoring “the desire of the individuals who peacefully forged their vote throughout the November 23 basic elections constitutes an unacceptable violation of democratic ideas”.
Guterres known as for the “rapid and unconditional restoration of constitutional order” and the discharge of all detained officers, together with electoral authorities and opposition figures.
