Guinea-Bissau 'under control' after foiled coup attempt

The president of Guinea-Bissau reassured residents of the West African nation by news conference from his bullet-scarred home after mutinous soldiers fought their way into the residence in a three-hour gunbattle with his guards.

In an apparent coup attempt, the soldiers attacked President Joao Bernardo Vieira’s home with heavy artillery fire shortly after midnight yesterday, killing at least one of his guards and injuring several others before security forces were able to push them back, Interior Minister Cipriano Cassama said earlier.

The attackers did not reach the room where Mr Vieira was hiding and neither he nor his wife was hurt, Mr Cassama said.

“These people attacked my residence with a single objective – to physically liquidate me,” Mr Vieira told the nation in a late afternoon televised news conference.

“No one has the right to massacre the people of Guinea-Bissau in order to steal power by means of the gun.”

The walls of his fortified house were scarred with bullets and its floors still were littered with shell casings.

But calm appeared to have returned the capital, Bissau, and Mr Vieira assured citizens that “the situation is under control”.

Guinea-Bissau has had multiple coups and attempted coups since 1980, when Mr Vieira himself first took power in one.