The government in Guinea Bissau appears to have regained control after an attempted coup early Tuesday.
President Umaro Sissoco Embaló has spoken for the first time this evening, since gun firing erupted around the presidential palace in Bissau in the early hours of Tuesday. He said he was fine and that the situation was under control.
Images published on the president’s official facebook page show him talking to top military officers. It is captioned: “Calm returns to Bissau.”
The president held a press briefing which was broadcast live on facebook.
President Embalo was also quoted by Jeune Afrique saying that he was ok, while lamenting the devastation.
“There have been many deaths but I am fine,” he said.
“I’m fine, the situation has been brought under control,” he added, describing those behind the incident as “isolated elements,”
However, sources in Bissau say the situation remains tense and confused, following the gun firing in the afternoon of Tuesday.
The firing around the presidential palace had erupted while the president was chairing a cabinet meeting, along with the Prime Minister Nuno Gomes Nabiam.
The West African bloc ECOWAS, the African Union and the United Nations condemned the “attempted coup.”
