Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embalo has beefed up his personal security in response to the gale of coup that has swept across African countries, with Gabon being the latest where President Ali Bongo was ousted last week by the military.
Embalo appointed two new officials who resumed duties on Monday to protect his security.
The coups in Niger and Gabon were both carried out by the security officials of the government.
General Tomas Djassi was named as head of presidential security, while General Horta Inta was appointed as chief of staff for the president, an AFP report says.
These two positions have long existed in the government’s organisational structure but have not been filled for several decades.
Djassi and Inta were sworn in Monday during a ceremony at the presidential palace, according to an AFP journalist.
Guinea-Bissau has suffered four military coups since independence in 1974, most recently in 2012.
An attempt to overthrow Embalo took place in February 2022.
“It’s true that coups d’état carried out by presidential security officers have become fashionable,” the president told reporters on Monday, while assuring that “any suspicious movement will be met with an appropriate response”.
Before his new appointment, Djassi was the head of the national guard, an elite unit of the army whose intervention helped stall the 2022 coup attempt while Inta was head of the central police station in Bissau.
Last month, Embalo warned that Niger’s coup presented an existential threat to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), saying the deposed Nigerien president Mohamed Bazoum was the country’s only legitimate leader.
