Ahead of ECOWAS Visit, Guinea-Bissau’s Military Leaders Impose Protest Ban

Guinea-Bissau’s military rulers have imposed a sweeping ban on protests, strikes and any activities deemed a threat to public order as they consolidate power ahead of a crucial ECOWAS delegation visit aimed at reversing last week’s coup.

The junta’s directive, issued late Sunday, also ordered ministries and state agencies to immediately resume work. The decision comes a day after hundreds of young demonstrators took to the streets of Bissau demanding the release of detained opposition figures and the publication of disputed presidential election results.

A high-level ECOWAS mediation team — including the presidents of Togo, Cape Verde and Senegal, along with the ECOWAS Commission chief — is expected in the capital on Monday to push the military leaders to restore civilian rule and release the contested poll returns. The regional bloc has warned of possible sanctions against those undermining the country’s democratic process.

Interim leader Maj. Gen. Horta Inta-a, installed by the coup plotters, defended the takeover as a move to prevent alleged “narcotraffickers” from seizing control of the state, and promised a one-year transition back to constitutional order.

The coup is the latest in a long chain of political upheavals in Guinea-Bissau, a country marked by chronic instability and known as a key transit point for Latin American cocaine heading to Europe.