APA-Bissau (Guinea Bissau) A barrage of gunfire was heard around the Bissau Guinean capital on Friday morning as President Umaru Sissoco Emballo takes part in COP 28, the 28thUnited Nations climate conference in Dubai.
Sources in Bissau reported hearing heavy gunfire early in the morning. The shots were heard after soldiers stormed the police headquarters to free the Minister of Finance, Souleiman Seidi, and the Secretary of State for the Treasury, Antonio Monteiro.
The two men had been taken into custody the previous day as part of an investigation into alleged irregular withdrawals of $10 million.
According to witnesses in Bissau, soldiers from the National Guard, a corps of the Guinea-Bissau army, forcibly retrieved them and took refuge in a barracks in the south of the capital.
Elements of the Bissau-Guinean Special Forces were sent in to try to reason with their colleagues, but gunfire rang out when the negotiations failed.
After the exchange of fire, calm was restored.
For the moment, there has been no communication from the authorities in Bissau on this affair, which comes at a time when President Umaru Sissoco Emballo is in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to take part in the 28th United Nations Climate Conference (COP 28).
RK/ac/fss/as/APA
 |
ReplyForward
|