Guinea-Bissau arrested top soldiers for a possible coup attempt

Mamadou Kourouma, deputy chief of staff of the armed forces, said on Friday that a group of top army officers had been arrested on charges of trying to take down the government.

The West African country has had a lot of coups and unrest since it got its freedom from Portugal in 1974.

Top military leaders, including General Dahaba Na Walna, Commanders Domingos Nhanke, and Mario Midana, were taken Thursday in their homes in Bissau, the country’s capital, Kourouma said.

He did not give all the names of the police officers who were taken. According to Reuters, the officers or their representative could not be reached to speak on the claim.

“This is indeed a new attempt to subvert the constitutional order, on the eve of the start of the election campaign for the legislative and presidential elections on November 23,” Kourouma told a news conference.

As of December 202, President Umaro Sissoco Embalo said that there had been two moves to remove him from office.

It’s been a fight between Embalo and the political opposition, which says his current five-year term ended at the end of February but the Supreme Court of Justice says it ends on September 4.