The military high command in Guinea-Bissau on Thursday inaugurated General Horta Nta as the head of the military government.
The military, in a declaration announced on state television, said General Horta Nta will oversee a one-year transition period.
Nta was the army chief of staff until the coup and a close ally of deposed President Umaro Sissoco Embalo.
The development cemented a forceful takeover of power that began after the country’s presidential election.
Embalo’s whereabouts remained unknown on Thursday.
He told AFP on Wednesday that he was arrested by soldiers as gunshots rang out near the presidential palace.
The opposition, alleged that Embalo had fabricated the coup to avoid an election defeat in Sunday’s closely contested presidential election.
The reported coup is the latest in a surge of military takeovers in West Africa, where democracy recently has been challenged by disputed elections that analysts say could embolden militaries.
Guinea-Bissau, one of the world’s poorest countries with a 2.2 million people has been dogged by coups and attempted coups since its independence from Portugal more than 50 years ago, including a coup attempt in October.
The country is known as a hub for drug trafficking between Latin America and Europe, a trend that experts say has fueled its political crises.
Veteran journalist and recipient of A.B.C Yola, Reporter of the Year Award (1997), Hassan Umar Shallpella, works with WAP as a Regional Correspondence. He was trained at Institute of Mass Communication and Technology Jos and Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, Training School Lagos.He was a News desk Editor and a Correspondent at the Punch newspaper and till 2019, was the Deputy Editor ofThe Scope newspaper.
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