In a context marked by coups in Niger and Gabon, led by presidential security officials, Umaro Sissoco Embalo is taking precautions. The president of Guinea-Bissau has appointed two new security officials who took up their duties on Monday, in a country accustomed to coups.
Generals Tomas Djassi and Horta Inta were appointed on Friday respectively chief of presidential security and special chief of staff of the president of the Republic. These two positions, provided for in the official organization chart, had not been filled for several decades. They were invested Monday during a ceremony at the presidential palace, in the presence of President Embalo.
Coups “became a fashion”
General Djassi was before his appointment at the head of the national guard, an elite unit of the army whose intervention of his men contributed to the failure of the coup d’etat having targeted in February 2022, according to the authorities. , Umaro Sissoco Embalo, elected in the second round in December 2019. General Inta was the head of the central police station in Bissau, an institution that has often been run by the military.
“It is true that the coups d’etat perpetrated by the officers responsible for presidential security have become a fashion. But if Tomas (Djassi) ventures to (carry out) such a project, we will fight for a long time”, declared the Bissau-Guinean head of state, in response to a question from the press. “Seriously speaking, I assure you that there will be neither February 2 nor February 3. Any suspicious movement will have an adequate response, ”he added, referring to the coup attempt of which he says he was the victim on February 1, 2022 and which left 11 dead, according to the government.
Guinea-Bissau suffers from chronic political instability and has been the victim since its independence from Portugal in 1974 of a string of coups d’etat or coup attempts.