Guinea-Bissau: Five decades of coups, crises and cartel influence • FRANCE 24 English

Barred by coups for the past 50 years, the small West African nation of Guinea Bisau has struggled to find any long-term stability since becoming independent. Following almost 12 years of armed struggle, the country freed itself from its former colonizer Portugal in 1974. The Republic of Guinea Bisau was founded and the constitution established in 1984. But since then, successful coups and coup attempts have rocked the country. The latest events have taken place exactly 2 years after the previous attempt when President Omaru Sissoku Embalo was already leading the country. At the end of November 2023, a faction of the National Guard who’d released ministers accused of corruption clashed with government forces. A year before that, 11 people died in what the president said was an assassination attempt on several members of the government. This just after two other coup attempts in 2020 and 2019. The last successful coup happened in 2012, ousting interim president Rayundo Pereira in the middle of presidential elections. And in 2003, President Kumbayala was forced to resign following a period of political instability. President, four successful coups in all. President Nino Vieiraa was killed in 2009 in what’s thought to have been a revenge attack. Almost 40% of the country’s 2 million people live in extreme poverty, suffering the consequences of corruption and drug trafficking. Guineabis has long been a hub for cocaine transiting between South America and Europe with drugs often entering the country via its islands. It’s the only African country to be labeled a narco state by the United Nations. A term used when a country’s government, judiciary, and military are all deemed to have been infiltrated by drug cartels. And when part of the government plays an active role in running the trade.

Since independence from Portugal in 1974, Guinea-Bissau has faced chronic instability marked by four successful coups, multiple coup attempts and political violence, including the 2009 killing of President Nino Vieira. Recent clashes in 2023 and 2021 highlight ongoing turmoil. Poverty, corruption and pervasive drug trafficking have deepened the crisis, with the UN labelling Guinea-Bissau a ‘narcostate’ due to cartel infiltration across state institutions.
#GuineaBissau #GuineaBissauCoup #Narcostate

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