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Guinea-Bissau: Coup attempt as soldiers attack capital
Angolan Defense Minister Candido Pereira Van-Dunem said Thursday in Luanda that his country would “continue to provide full support” to Guinea-Bissau, with which Angola has “excellent ties,” Angop reported. He said a calendar for the return of Angolan troops to Luanda was being negotiated with the Bissau authorities.
Explosions rocked the capital, Bissau, Thursday night, according to a diplomat and witnesses. Shooting started after the state radio station signal inexplicably went dead. A military official, who could not be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said soldiers had encircled Gomes’ home and were attacking it with grenades. It was not clear if the premier was at home when the shooting started.
Resident Edmond Ajoye, an employee of a Dutch NGO, said he was around 3 miles (5 kilometers) from his home when the shooting began.
“There was panic. Women were running,” he said. “There were rockets being launched, and the soldiers were shooting with guns mounted on their trucks.”
“The soldiers took downtown,” he continued. “The shooting lasted from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. They then went from embassy to embassy to make sure that the politicians couldn’t seek refuge there.”
Guinea-Bissau has weathered successive coups, attempted coups and a civil war since winning independence from Portugal in 1974. The country’s longtime ruler Joao Bernardo “Nino” Vieira was assassinated inside his home in 2009.
Guinea-Bissau has been further destabilized by a growing cocaine trade. Traffickers from Latin America use the nation’s archipelago of uninhabited islands to land small, twin-engine planes loaded with drugs, which are then parceled out and carried north for sale in Europe.
The traffickers, according to analysts, have bought off key members of the government and the military, creating a narco-state.
