allAfrica.com

Guinea Bissau: President, Army Chief Assassinated

2 March 2009


Both Guinea Bissau's president and its army chief have been assassinated within hours of one another, apparently as a result of rivalry between them, news agencies reported Monday.

President João Bernardo Vieira of Guinea Bissau was killed by soldiers, a military spokesman told Agence France-Presse.

Spokesman Zamora Induta told AFP: "President Vieira was killed by the army as he tried to flee his house which was being attacked by a group of soldiers close to the chief of staff Tagme Na Waie, early this morning."

Tagme, Guinea Bissau's military leader, had been killed in a bomb attack on army headquarters in Bissau on Sunday. Induta alleged to AFP that Vieira was "one of the main people responsible" for Tagme's killing.

Later on Monday, the Associated Press reported Luis Sanca, a security adviser to Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Jr., as confirming Vieira's death.

Guinea Bissau has long been unstable, its ruling elite at odds and riven by alleged assassination and coup plots.

Last November, elements of the military launched an unsuccessful attack on the president's residence soon after elections.

The International Crisis Group recently described the country's institutions as "structurally feeble" and warned that there was a permanent threat of military intervention in politics.

Read comments. Write your own.

More News on allAfrica.com

President, Army Chief Killed

Copyright © 2009 allAfrica.com. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.

AllAfrica - All the Time
Author: TAMBA KORGBA-FAIDUWOH
Mon Mar 2 12:15:19 2009

SAD, SAD AND SAD THAT AN AFRICAN PRESIDENT RECEIVES JUSTICE IN SUCH A MANNER. THERE IS NO GOOD WAY FORWARD FOR AFRICA UNTIL THE MILITARY IS MADE TO PAY FOR THE PROBLEMS CAUSED SINCE THE END OF COLONIALISM. MOST OF OUR POLITICAL LEADERS ARE DEARLY RESPONSIBLE IN THE ARMING OF THE MILITARY IN A BID TO SAFEGUARD THEIR CORRUPT REGIMES AT THE SUFFERING MERCY OF THE POOR. A NEW CHAPTER IN THE POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT OF THE MILITARY IN AFRICA HAS TO BE RE- WRITTEN. ECOWAS, THE AU AND THE UNITED NATIONS HAVE TO SAVE THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA FROM THE HANDS OF THESE "KHAKI BOYS" WHO ONLY LIVE ON TAX PAYERS SWEATS. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. AFRICA NEEDS SOME WAY FORWARD. TAMBA KORGBA-FAIDUWOH FELDGASSE 17 CH-3946 TURTMANN SWITZERLAND TEL:-0041-274732101 MOBILE:-0041-798394773 EMAIL:- takorfai51@hotmail.com WEB: WWW.FORUM-MIGRATION.CH

Author: Jide Olatuyi
Mon Mar 2 13:22:56 2009

Another gory outcome inevitable of poor governance and long struggle for power and stability. The violent killings and the army bravado are all reminiscent of a weak, decadent and corrupt nation. A completely disparaging crisis that needs urgent rescue efforts. But like Liberia, S/Leone and Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea- Bissau shall overcome.

Author: Concerned Afro-Guyanese
Mon Mar 2 19:06:53 2009

It is absolutely deplorable, the manner in which politics on sub-saharan African soil is conducted. Coups, rapes, mass killings, ethnic clensing, mutilations, etc... We look inhuman to the rest of the world, and these images saturate the minds of many who live outside the continent and judge us with negative perceptions. When is the African Union going to develop policies that govern more civilized political processes? This seems to be an on-going occurrence that many have grown comfortable to know as "politics as usual in Africa." This is absolute nonsense. There is no forward progress for our continent, if there can't be a more civilized approach to governance. Many great African minds await an opportunity to return home, but instead, we import Chinese and European inginuity to do the work that many of our African brothers and sisters can perform. Africa continues to die at the hands of neo-colonialism and ignorant leadership. This is what the former slavemasters want, and we are walking right into their hands.

Author: Omugabe
Tue Mar 3 00:00:16 2009

Do you know Guyanese history? Obviously not! And if you have not bothered to look at and understand Guyanese history, you know less of history on the African continent.

A lot of the problems Africans, Guyanese and other previously colonized countries have with governance stem the 'divide and dominate' structures that the evil Europeans set up when they move into the shadows to pull their sinful strings of influence in former colonies.

Countries like Bissau are the result of FORCED mixing by the evil Europeans of different African cultures.

Ethnic groups that are FORCED together MUST experience friction. It is this friction that heats up into violence from time to time.

The way forward is to effectively educate the population away from the evils of eurocentricity.

Author: samhenrymukasa
Mon Mar 2 23:11:02 2009

It's sad that Africa cannot get its politics inorder. Reason being, leaders who don't want to leave power thinking that they are the only ones who can lead. This creats enemity in sociaty and revenge because usually the president's tribe benefits the most. If we have an orderly transfer of power then this could not happen because people know that after so many years the government will change. For example Uganda whose leader has been in power for twenty-five years and counting.

Author: sanza
Tue Mar 3 03:33:51 2009

It is unfortunate that only one respondent to this article is seeing the root of the of the problem on the continent. The unconscious dependence on your former masters, even though you call yourselves independent. They use any means necessary to create instabilities in your governments in order to keep you from focusing on the rape of your natural resources. While you maintain there colonial structures, trying to be like them, they continue draining you of your wealth.

Cut the vampire corporations off. Refine your own oil, turn your own crops into product to sell on the market.You are allowing europeans and asians to do what was done to your brothers in the U.S. Free labor gave this country the ability to become a world power almost overnight. Your giving eurasia virtually free crops and minerals will be your downfall. Break the cycle.

Author: wayneliuwc
Tue Mar 3 00:32:41 2009

Will Africa enter into a new era of coup?Ever it has been.

See all comments (17).


SELECT
SELECT

Topics