West Africa was jolted last Wednesday by the news of a military takeover in Guinea-Bissau, one of the continent’s most politically fragile and impoverished nations. The latest coup d’état unfolded just as the official results of the presidential election were imminent. General Denis N’Canha, head of the presidential military office, announced the military’s seizure of power.
Gen. N’Canha addressed the nation, confirming that the ousted President Umaro Sissoco Embalo had been detained alongside his chief of staff and the interior minister. They are reportedly being held and “well-treated” at the General Staff Headquarters in Malabo. The new junta immediately imposed a mandatory curfew on the former Portuguese colony of $2.2$ million people and ordered the closure of all its air, land, and sea borders.
The contest that preceded the turmoil was fiercely fought between the now-ousted President Embalo and the opposition candidate of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), Fernando Dias. Both men had prematurely claimed victory ahead of the scheduled release of the provisional results by the country’s National Electoral Commissioner (NEC) last Wednesday.
Guinea-Bissau has a long and troubled history of electoral disputes. The 2019 presidential election was characterized by a four-month crisis as the two main rivals laid claim to the presidency. Four years later, the president dissolved the opposition-dominated legislature and has been ruling by decree ever since. In fact, the nation has witnessed a distressing series of military interruptions since achieving independence in 1974.
ECOWAS’s Diminished Bloc
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), of which Guinea-Bissau is a founding member, was swift to react. The regional bloc suspended the country in line with its Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance and issued a stern warning to the coup leaders to restore constitutional order and return to the barracks. This decision was reached after a virtual meeting of the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government, chaired by Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio, which convened the Mediation and Security Council last Thursday to review the crisis. The African Union has also weighed in, demanding the immediate withdrawal of the junta.
However, the suspension of Guinea-Bissau means the once robust 15-member regional bloc has now shrunk to just 11 active members. This follows the dramatic walk-away earlier this year by Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. Those nations withdrew in protest against ECOWAS’s hardline reaction to the military coup that removed Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum from power in July 2023. This shrinkage highlights a significant challenge to the bloc’s regional stability and authority.
The Original Vision of the Community
ECOWAS was established on May 28, 1975, following a treaty signed in Lagos by 15 West African nations, with Cape Verde joining later. The original members included Liberia, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, The Gambia, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Sierra Leone, Mali, Republic of Benin, Togo, Mauritania, and Burkina Faso (then known as Upper Volta until 1984). The Francophone countries make up eight of this number, with the Anglophone nations completing the rest, plus the former Portuguese colony, Cape Verde.
The bloc’s core mission at its formation was to foster deep economic cooperation among member states to elevate living standards and drive collective economic development. Over time, the realities of the region necessitated the expansion of this mandate to include critical platforms aimed at peace and security, infrastructure development, trade facilitation through policy harmonisation, and promoting good corporate governance.
