By Kofi Kyekyeku, BISSAU Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau slipped deeper into political turmoil this week as soldiers confirmed a new junta leader and former President Umaro Sissoco Embaló departed for neighboring Senegal after a fiercely disputed election.
The military high command presented Gen. Horta Inta-a on state television as the head of a transitional military government that intends to steer the country through a one-year handover period.
Inta-a, once Embaló’s army chief of staff, has now become the face of the country’s latest power shift.
Senegal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Embaló landed in Dakar aboard a government-chartered plane.
The ministry revealed it had been “in direct communication with all concerned Guinea-Bissau actors” and pledged to work with partners to support a democratic transition.
Long viewed as one of the poorest and most politically fragile states in West Africa, Guinea-Bissau has endured repeated coups and attempted coups since independence from Portugal more than fifty years ago.
Its role as a trafficking corridor between Latin America and Europe has also contributed to decades of instability
The country briefly braced for mass demonstrations after opposition parties urged supporters to protest and demanded the release of election results that were expected on Thursday.
Military authorities quickly moved to halt that momentum with a broad prohibition on gatherings and “all disturbing actions of peace and stability in the country.”
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