The African Union, AU, has suspended Guinea-Bissau after the coup in the country that overthrew President Umaro Embalo.
Chairman of AU, Mahamoud Youssouf, said the union decided to suspend Guinea-Bissau from its bodies with immediate effect.
DAILY POST reports that the regional body’s decision came hours after the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, suspended the West African nation from its decision-making bodies over the coup.
ECOWAS’ Mediation and Security Council, MSC, took the decision after an emergency meeting late Thursday.
Recall that military officers took over power in Guinea-Bissau on Wednesday, about three days after the country’s disputed presidential and legislative elections.
The officers immediately suspended the nation’s electoral process and closed its borders.
They also stopped the announcement of the election results and appointed the chief of staff of the army, General Horta N’Tam, as the country’s new leader for one year.
After initially being arrested by the military, Embalo fled to Senegal on Thursday.
The military takeover has been widely criticised.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced the “unacceptable violation of democratic principles”.
Sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea, Guinea-Bissau has already experienced four coups and numerous attempts since gaining independence from Portugal in 1974. Its election results are often contested.
Among the world’s poorest countries, it is also a hub for drug trafficking between Latin America and Europe, a trade facilitated by the nation’s long history of political tumult.
Guinea-Bissau joins a number of other countries that suffered suspension by the AU following coups across the continent, including in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Sudan, and, more recently, Madagascar.