A group of military officers say they have seized control of Guinea-Bissau amid reports that the president, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, has been arrested.
Shortly after
gunshots were heard in the capital, Bissau, government sources told the BBC
that Embaló had been detained.
The officers
then appeared on state TV, saying they had suspended the electoral process, as
the West African nation awaited the outcome of Sunday's presidential election.
They said they
were acting to thwart a plot by unnamed politicians who had "the support
of a well-known drug baron" to destabilise the country, and announced the
closure of its borders and imposed a night-time curfew.
Sandwiched
between Senegal and Guinea, the coup-prone country is known as a notorious
drug-trafficking hub where the military has been influential since independence
from Portugal in 1974.
The election
results were expected on Thursday - both Embaló and his closest rival Fernando
Dias had claimed victory.
Dias was
supported by former Prime Minister Domingos Pereira, who had been disqualified
from running.
Late on
Wednesday afternoon, Embaló told France 24 in a phone call: "I have been
deposed."
Government
sources have since told the BBC that Dias, Pereira and Interior Minister Botché
Candé have also been detained.
The putschists
have taken army chief Gen Biague Na Ntan and his deputy, Gen Mamadou Touré,
into custody too, the sources say. BBC
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