AfricaNews Monitoring Team Photo: Wade and Vieira (in dark suit)
Guinea-Bissau's President Joao Bernado Vieira has been killed by soldiers, hours after that country's army chief was killed in an attack, officials said. Gunfire and the crump of heavier weapons resounded in Bissau city and it was unclear who was in control. The country has recent history of coup.
“President Vieira was killed by the army as he tried to flee his house which was being attacked by a group of soldiers close to the chief of staff Tagme Na Waie, early this morning,” military spokesman Zamora Induta told AFP news agency.
He accused Vieira of being responsible for the death of the army chief of staff.
Two residents, who both declined to be identified, said they had been told by presidential guards that Vieira had been killed and his body was lying in his home, according to Reuters.
The country of just 1.6 million people, a former Portuguese colony, has suffered years of coups and civil strife and has been used in the past few years as a conduit for smuggling Latin American cocaine to Europe.
Vieira is a former military ruler who was ousted during a civil war in the 1990s and returned to power in a 2005 election.
He had been at odds with armed forces chief of staff General Batista Tagme Na Wai, who was killed in an attack on Sunday evening.
Tensions are rife within Bissau's political establishment and security forces. In January, the armed forces command said militiamen hired to protect President Vieira had shot at Na Wai.
A member of the militia denied the shooting had been an assassination attempt, but the armed forces command nevertheless ordered the militia be disbanded.
