Guinea-Bissau: 40 years of instability

Since its independence from Portugal in 1974, Guinea-Bissau has been chronically unstable, marked by a multitude of coups d’état, attempted coups and assassinations, of which the most striking are:

1980, the first overthrown president

On November 14, 1980, six years after independence, Guinea-Bissau’s first president, Luis Cabral, was overthrown by a coup that brought to power a Revolutionary Council chaired by the Minister of Defense, Joao Bernardo Vieira , says « Nino ». Detained for six months, Luis Cabral will leave Portugal.

In 1985, Vice President Paulo Correia was accused of attempted coup and executed with five other people.

In 1994, « Nino » Vieira was elected President of the Republic during the first general elections held in the country.

1999, putsch against Vieira

On May 7, 1999, « Nino » Vieira was in turn overthrown by former army chief of staff, General Ansumane Mané, who had been rebelling 11 months earlier after being sacked on charges of sales. arms to the separatists of Casamance (Senegal)

General Mané takes the head of a junta that installs at the head of the country Malam Bacai Sanha, president of the National Assembly in charge of the interim until the presidential election.

After Bacai Sanha’s defeat in the January 2000 presidential election, General Mane attempted another coup in November but was killed by forces loyal to President-elect Kumba Yala.

2003, Kumba Yala filed

On 14 September 2003, a junta led by the Chief of Staff, General Vérissimo Seabra Correia, deposed President Kumba Yala. General Seabra Correia will be killed on October 6, 2004 in the attack on the army headquarters in Bissau by soldiers who are demanding arrears of balances

2009, Vieira murdered

Returning to power in 2005, President Vieira, the target of a failed military coup in August 2008, was killed by soldiers a few hours after the assassination of the chief of staff, General Tagmé Na Waie.

2012, stopping the electoral process

On April 13, 2012, a coup led by the chief of staff, General Antonio Indjai, interrupts the electoral process two weeks before the second round of presidential elections.

Acting President Raumundo Pereira and his prime minister, Carlos Gomes Junior, the presidential favorite, are tabled.

A transitional authority is set up with the agreement of the coup leaders until the election in May 2014 of José Mario Vaz in the presidential election.