The African Union suspended Guinea-Bissau on Friday, the AU Commission head told AFP, two days after the overthrow of President Umaro Sissoco Embalo in a military takeover.
The military announced on Wednesday they had overthrown Embalo, derailing the announcement of election results, that had been expected shortly in the Portuguese-speaking West African nation.
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The AU decided “to suspend Guinea-Bissau from its bodies with immediate effect”, chairman Mahmoud Ali Youssouf said.
The junta appointed General Horta N’Tam, previously the army chief of staff, as president of the transition, which is to last one year.
After initially being arrested by the military, Embalo fled to Senegal on Thursday.
Opposition presidential candidate Fernando Dias, who claims to have won the election, told AFP that he was “safe” and in hiding in the country.
The military takeover has been widely criticised.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced the “unacceptable violation of democratic principles”.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) also suspending the country from “all decision-making bodies”.
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.
Sanctions were lifted in April against Gabon, a Central African country suspended after the overthrow of President Ali Bongo.
AFP