Soldiers hold weapons while patrolling a street near the scene of gunfire near the Presidential Palace in Bissau on November 26, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AFP
Military officers in Guinea-Bissau announced on Wednesday (November 26, 2025) they were taking “total control” of the country while suspending its electoral process and closing its borders, three days after the poverty-stricken west African nation’s legislative and presidential elections.
Military personnel made the announcement by reading a statement at army headquarters in the capital, Bissau, AFP journalists observed on the scene.
Soldiers took control of the main road leading to Guinea-Bissau’s presidential palace earlier on Wednesday (November 26) after heavy gunshots rang out, as the poverty-stricken West African country awaits the results of a vote claimed by both major presidential candidates.
The soldiers, drawn from the presidential guard and an elite gendarmerie unit, controlled the deserted area as calm returned and shooting ceased for the time being, AFP journalists on the scene observed.
Hundreds of people on foot and in vehicles had fled seeking shelter as the shots rang out.
The whereabouts of incumbent president Umaro Sissoco Embalo, who was favoured to win re-election, was not immediately known by midday on Wednesday (November 26).
Both Mr. Embalo and opposition candidate Fernando Dias have already declared victory in the race, which until Wednesday (November 26) had passed off peacefully.
Official provisional vote results are expected on Thursday (November 27) in the tumultuous west African country, which has experienced four coups since independence, as well as multiple attempted coups.
A passerby fleeing from the chaotic scene told AFP that “we’re used to it in Bissau”.
Guinea-Bissau is among the world’s poorest countries and is also a hub for drug trafficking between Latin America and Europe, a trade facilitated by the country’s long history of political instability.
Victory claims
Both candidates had already declared victory with little proof to support their claims.
“There won’t be a second round,” Mr. Embalo’s campaign spokesperson Oscar Barbosa told AFP on Tuesday (November 25), adding that the president “will have a second mandate”.
Mr. Dias also declared victory, saying in a video posted to social media, “This election has been won, it has been won in the first round.”
Guinea-Bissau’s last presidential vote in 2019 was marked by a four-month post-election crisis as both main candidates claimed victory.
The election had pitted Mr. Embalo against Domingos Simoes Pereira, the candidate from the country’s main opposition party PAIGC, which secured Guinea-Bissau’s independence from Portugal in 1974.
The country’s 2025 election notably excluded PAIGC and Mr. Pereira, who were struck from the final list of candidates and parties by the Supreme Court, which said they had filed their official applications too late.
In 2023, Mr. Embalo dissolved the legislature — which was dominated by the opposition — and has since ruled by decree.
The opposition says PAIGC’s exclusion from the presidential and parliamentary elections amounts to “manipulation” and maintains that Mr. Embalo’s term expired on February 27, five years to the day after his inauguration.
More than 6,780 security forces, including those from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Stabilisation Force, were deployed for the vote and the post-election period.
Published – November 26, 2025 08:59 pm IST
