Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embalo on Thursday accused a former Guinean navy chief and two of his accomplices of being behind a failed coup attempt that jolt the nation earlier this month, reported France 24.
On February 1, some heavily armed people attacked government buildings in the capital Bissau while President Embalo was chairing a cabinet meeting. The 49-year-old president told reporters that he had escaped the five-hour gun battle unharmed and that 11 people had been killed in the fighting.
On Thursday, he named former rear admiral Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto, who was head of the navy in the early 2000s, among three men who had been arrested over the attack. He said Tchamy Yala, also a former officer, and Papis Djeme, have also been arrested in connection with the assassination attempt.
The three accused were arrested in April 2013 aboard a boat off the coast of West Africa by undercover operatives from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). They pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a U.S. court and were later released after serving their sentences.
Guinea-Bissau’s president told reporters that he saw Yala and Djeme at the government palace during the coup attempt.
“During the coup, I see them. I see them with my eyes,” Embalo said. “They want to make a coup and kill me and the prime minister and all the government.”
“When the shots were being fired in the government palace, Bubo was at the Marine Corps headquarters .. and I heard the assailants say we are going to call him to send us reinforcements,” the president said.
He also said that among those involved were the same people who killed former president João Bernardo Vieira in 2009.
Guinea-Bissau’s government has witnessed around 10 successful or failed coups since the country gained independence from Portugal in 1974.
