Deposed Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Embaló
Guinea-Bissau’s former president, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, has resurfaced in Senegal after days of uncertainty following the military coup that removed him from office earlier in the week.
Senegal’s foreign ministry confirmed late Friday that Embaló arrived in Dakar on Thursday night aboard a chartered military aircraft.
Officials described him as arriving “safe and sound,” offering the first clear indication of his whereabouts since soldiers seized control in Bissau.
His relocation to Senegal came after what regional diplomats described as intense, round-the-clock negotiations led by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which has been scrambling to defuse tensions in the already fragile nation.
Guinea-Bissau, a country long shadowed by political turbulence, has endured a string of coups and failed coups since its independence from Portugal in 1974.
The latest power shift marks yet another blow to democratic efforts in a region struggling to steady itself amid repeated military interventions.
Embaló, a former army general who took office in 2020, has not yet made a public statement about his ouster, but his abrupt departure underscores the volatility gripping the small West African nation once again.
