At least six people were killed in a failed attempt to overthrow Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embaló, Reuters news agency quotes state radio as saying.
They included four assailants and two members of the presidential guard.
An army official, who requested anonymity, told AFP that the six were all soldiers – without clarifying whether any had been the attackers.
For five hours on Tuesday, heavily armed men fired on government buildings in the capital, Bissau, where the president was attending a cabinet meeting.
The attackers may have been linked to drug trafficking in the country, the president said.
The former Portuguese colony struggles with massive foreign debt and has become a transit point for Latin American drugs, leading it to be dubbed by some as Africa’s first narco-state.
It has seen nine coups or attempted coups since 1980.
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Are military takeovers on the rise in Africa?
Military coups were a regular occurrence in Africa in the decades that followed independence and there is concern they are starting to become more frequent.
This year has already seen two – a takeover by the army in Burkina Faso and the other a failed coup attempt in Guinea Bissau.
And 2021 witnessed a higher number of coups in Africa compared with previous years.
When is a coup a coup?
One definition used is that of an illegal and overt attempt by the military – or other civilian officials – to unseat sitting leaders.
A study by two US researchers, Jonathan Powell and Clayton Thyne, has identified over 200 such attempts in Africa since the 1950s.
About half of these have been successful – defined as lasting more than seven days.
Source: BBC
