Rebel soldiers kill Guinea-Bissau president

Rebel soldiers murdered Guinea-Bissau’s President Joao Bernardo Vieira today hours after a bomb killed his rival, the armed forces chief of the West African nation.

Luis Sanca, security adviser to prime minister Carlos Gomes Jr, confirmed the president’s death but gave no details.

Gunfire was heard for several hours around Guinea-Bissau’s presidential palace today, but the violence died down shortly after dawn.

It was not immediately clear whether a coup was under way, and the capital, Bissau, was tense but calm.

Armed forces chief of staff General Batiste Tagme na Waie was killed by the bomb at his headquarters in Bissau.

The two men were considered political rivals.

Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, has suffered multiple coups and attempted coups since 1980, when Vieira himself first took power in one. The nation of 1.5 million on the Atlantic coast of Africa is the fifth poorest in the world and has become a key transit point for cocaine smuggled from Latin America to Europe.

Just hours after Waie’s death yesterday, volleys of automatic gunfire were heard for at least two hours before dawn in Bissau and residents said soldiers had converged on Vieira’s palace.

The Portuguese news agency LUSA reported that troops attacked with rockets and rifles. The president’s press chief, Barnabe Gomes, escaped from the house after being struck by a bullet in his right shoulder.

It was the second attack on Vieira in recent months. In November, his residence was attacked by renegade soldiers with automatic weapons. At least one guard was killed in the failed coup attempt that was repulsed by loyalist security forces.

Waie also survived an apparent assassination attempt when unidentified attackers opened fire on his car in January.