Emergency Session on the Situation in Guinea-Bissau

Emergency Session on the Situation in Guinea-Bissau Date | 28 November 2025

Today (28 November) in the afternoon, the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) is scheduled to meet to discuss the situation in Guinea-Bissau. This emergency session has been called following the military seizure of power by the ‘High Military Command for the Restoration of National Security and Public Order’ group, following a fiercely contested presidential and legislative elections held in the country on 23 November 2025.

The session is expected to commence with opening remarks from Churchill Ewumbue-Monono, Permanent Representative of Cameroon to the AU and Chairperson of the PSC for November, followed by a briefing by Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, Chairperson of the AU Commission. Bankole Adeoye, AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security (PAPS), is also expected to make a statement, followed by a representative of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, as the country concerned, and a representative of the Republic of Sierra Leone, in its capacity as Chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The session is being held following the announcement of a group of military officers, on Wednesday, 26 November 2025, that they have taken ‘total control’ of the country, just one day after the two leading candidates, in a closely contested presidential election – incumbent Umaro Sissoco Embalo and main challenger Fernando Dias, declared victory before the release of official results. Ahead of the announcement of seizure of power by the army, the incumbent president told various news outlets on 26 November that he was arrested at his office at the presidential palace, although no force was used against him. Appearing on national television, the self-styled ‘High Military Command for the Restoration of National Security and Public Order’ read a statement suspending the electoral process ‘until further notice’ despite stating that they acted to stop attempts to ‘manipulate electoral results’, without specifying the source of such attempted manipulation. They further stated that the following day, Thursday, 27 November 2025, Major-General Horta Nta Na Man, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, was sworn in as transitional president for a one-year term after the military formally deposed President Umaro Sissoco Embaló.

During the swearing-in ceremony on Thursday afternoon, transitional president Major-General Horta Nta Na Man appointed Major-General Tomás Djassi as the new Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces. The coup unfolded just one day before the National Elections Commission was scheduled to release provisional results from the presidential runoff between incumbent Umaro Sissoco Embaló and his main challenger, 47-year-old political newcomer Fernando Dias. Hours before the military’s televised announcement on Wednesday, heavy gunfire echoed through Bissau for nearly an hour near the electoral commission headquarters and the presidential palace. Shortly afterwards, President Embaló contacted French media to confirm that he had been ousted from power. In a statement dated Thursday and released before Senegal confirmed it had granted him asylum, the military declared that Embaló and several senior officials were ‘under the control’ of the High Military Command.

This development came against the background of acute political instability and constitutional crisis in which the president has been at the centre. It is to be recalled that Embaló was sworn in on 27 February 2020 under a cloud of uncertainty about his electoral victory. His victory was confirmed by the Supreme Court only in September 2020. The tension that accompanied the contested ascent of Embaló to power had as one of its features a confrontation between him and the Assembly, which is dominated by the opposition party PAIGC. There were three instances in which he reported that he faced an attempted coup: in February 2022, December 2023 and last month. Embaló moved to dissolve the parliament in May 2022, months after the purported attempted coup of February 2022. At the time, Embaló justified his decision to dissolve the parliament by making reference to ‘persistent and unresolvable differences’ with the parliament. This triggered fierce opposition, with many questioning the constitutionality of the decision. Not long after another purported coup in early December 2023, which is attributed to a clash between a unit in the army and the presidential guard, Embalo once again blamed parliament and issued a decree dissolving the national assembly in another constitutionally questionable move. Since then, the country has been without one of the key arms of government, the legislature and Embalo was ruling through decree.

Embalo also postponed elections originally scheduled for 2024. When the five-year period since his ascent to power came in February 2025, the opposition insisted that his term expired on 27 February and his stay in power beyond that point was illegitimate. However, the Supreme Court ruled that it extends until 4 September, the date it validated his victory in 2020. ECOWAS’ efforts to mediate failed with a joint ECOWAS-UNOWAS diplomatic mission, deployed from 21 to 28 February, forced to leave on 1 March after Embaló threatened its expulsion, rejecting regional interference. When, finally, the national elections were set for November after repeated postponement and a month before the November elections, the historically prominent PAIGC party was excluded from contesting both the presidential and legislative elections, the first in such exclusion of the former ruling party in the country’s history. PAIGC blamed what it called Embalo of heavy-handed tactics that led to its exclusion from the vote on a technicality.

The last time the PSC held a session on the situation in Guinea-Bissau was in December 2022. Despite the fact that the PSC was scheduled to hold another session in December 2023, following the so-called attempted coup and Embal’s dissolution of parliament, the session was postponed. As a result, the dire constitutional crisis that characterised the political landscape of the country for over two years since the PSC’s last session did not receive the attention of the PSC. Today’s convening of the PSC emergency session, prompted by the announcement of military seizure of power, is emblematic of the deeply flawed policy approach that has become characteristic of both the AU and regional bodies like ECOWAS: react to the symptom (coup) while remaining silent to the governance crisis underlying the symptom. At least for ECOWAS, it is to be recalled that it sent a mission along with the UN Office to West Africa and the Sahel to achieve a consensual roadmap for elections, but the mission was aborted after Embaló threatened the mission. In a statement it issued at the time, ECOWAS said that it had ‘prepared a draft agreement on a roadmap for elections in 2025 and had started presenting it to the stakeholders (including the President) for their consent’. It further stated that the mission ‘departed Bissau in the early morning of 1^st March, following threats by the president.’ Yet, ECOWAS did nothing when its efforts were thwarted.

The Chairperson of the AU Commission issued a Press release on 26 November 2025, stressing ‘the imperative of respecting the ongoing electoral process and upholding constitutional order, in line with the mandate of the National Electoral Commission (CNE), the sole institution legally empowered to proclaim official election results in the country.’ He further called for ‘the immediate and unconditional release of President Embaló and all de- detained officials, and urged all parties to exercise the utmost restraint in order to prevent any further deterioration of the situation.’ The AU Election Observation Mission to the November 2025 General Elections in the Republic of Guinea-Bissau Preliminary Statement pointed out, among other things, that ‘the dissolution of the National People’s Assembly before the end of its term, which was due to end in 2027, deprived the country of parliamentary representation and legislation, leading to early legislative elections in November 2025, held concurrently with the presidential election.’ The Heads of the AU Election Observation Mission, ECOWAS Election Observation Mission, and the West African Elders Forum on the Post-Election Situation in Guinea-Bissau also issued a Joint Statement in which they expressed concern about the arrests of top officials, including those who are in charge of the electoral process. In this regard, they urged the armed forces to immediately release the detained officials to allow the country’s electoral process to proceed to its conclusion.

The ECOWAS convened an extraordinary summit on 27 November. The communiqué that the summit adopted condemned the ‘coup d’etat perpetrated on 26 November’ and rejected ‘any arrangements that perpetuate an illegal abortion of the democratic process and the subversion of the will of the people of Guinea-Bissau.’ While deciding to suspend Guinea Bissau, ECOWAS demanded that the coup makers ‘respect the will of the people and allow the National Electoral Commission to proceed without delay with the declaration of the results of the elections of 23 November 2025.’ Cognisant of the imperative for swift and high-level engagement, it also mandated ‘the Chair of the (ECOWAS) Authority to lead a high-level Mediation Mission to Guinea Bissau to engage the leaders of the coup’.

There are four issues that the PSC needs to address when it convenes at 15:00hrs EAT in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the in-person session. The first of these is how to ensure that the results of the elections of 23 November are not tampered with. Any possibility of reversing the military coup depends on it. The second is to convince the coup makers to heed the call of the AU Commission Chairperson and the ECOWAS Authority to allow the finalisation of the electoral process by allowing, without delay, the declaration of the results by the electoral body. The third is to plan for the terms on the basis of which the coup makers may reverse their course of action, including the kind of guarantees to be availed to them in exchange for allowing the elections to proceed. The fourth is how to effectively and decisively address the institutional crisis related to the constitutional design of power relations in Guinea-Bissau that has kept the country in perpetual political, constitutional and security instability.

The expected outcome of the session is a communiqué. The PSC is expected to condemn the seizure of power by the military on 26 November 2025 and reject the interruption of the electoral process, which violates AU principles and normative instruments, particularly the African Charter on Governance, Elections and Democracy and the 2000 Lomé Declaration. In this regard, the PSC, in line with relevant AU instruments, particularly Article 7 (g) of the PSC Protocol, and Article 25 (1) of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, is expected to suspend Guinea-Bissau from participating in all activities of the Union, its organs and institutions, until constitutional order is restored in the country. The PSC may urge that the coup makers refrain from engaging or allowing anyone to engage in tampering with the electoral process and the results of the elections. It may also endorse the decision of ECOWAS and reiterate the AU Commission Chairperson’s statement calling for respect for the ongoing electoral process and allow the announcement of the results of the elections. To facilitate that such an outcome is secured, the PSC may task the Chairperson of the AU Commission to coordinate with ECOWAS for the AU Chairperson, along with the Commission Chairperson, joining the high-level mission to be led by the Chairperson of the ECOWAS Authority, President Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone, with the participation of Faure Gnassingbe, President of Togo, Jose Maria Pereira Neves, President of Cabo Verde, and Bassirou Diomaye Faye, President of Senegal, accompanied by the President of the ECOWAS Commission. Given the political trajectory that led to the coup, PSC’s action may also seek to address the persistent institutional crisis and governance fragility and to this end may task the AU Commission Chairperson to urgently appoint a special envoy on Guinea-Bissau to work closely with the Panel of the Wise, and to strengthen the mandate of the AU Liaison Office in the country, with the view to facilitate necessary constitutional and security sector governance reforms in Guinea Bissau in coordination with ECOWAS.