The Guinean Military Police informed Lusa that at least two soldiers died in the fighting in Bissau in the early hours of this Friday between agents of the National Guard and elements of the Presidential Palace Battalion.
According to the same source, the dead would be a National Guard agent and a soldier from the Presidential Battalion.
“For now we are still investigating, but at least we can confirm these two deaths,” said the source from the Military Police, an army body that maintains order among the military in case of armed altercations.
The same source also indicated that so far two injuries have been reported and they are receiving medical treatment.
The Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, General Mamadu Turé “Nkrumah”, issued a statement informing the population and the international community that the “situation has returned to calm” and that everything was caused by the actions of the Commander of the Armed Forces. Armed forces. National Guard, Vítor Tchongo, when ordering the release of the two members of the Government detained in the Judicial Police (PJ).
“For these reasons, the Republican Forces rose up and restored constitutional order,” the statement reads.
The shots echoed throughout the city of Bissau and came from the vicinity of the Luanda neighborhood barracks and other National Guard facilities, according to information that reached Lusa.
The area of the neighborhoods closest to the shooting, such as Santa Luzia, Luanda, Empantcha, was, in the early hours of the morning, without movement of vehicles and people, some businesses closed, but in other areas of the city the population He maintained normal routines, even with the sound of gunshots.
The Minister of Economy and Finance, Suleimane Seidi, and the Secretary of State for Finance, António Monteiro, were placed in preventive detention on Thursday, after being interviewed by the Public Ministry.
The government officials are being investigated in connection with a payment of six billion CFA francs (around 10 million US dollars) to 11 businessmen, through a loan to a commercial bank in Bissau.
Hours after the court decision, they were taken from the PJ cells by the National Guard and this morning, after the confrontations, they were again interned in the cells of the Judicial Police.
Several directors of the Ministry of Economy and Finance have already been interviewed since last week as part of the process that led to the arrest of the institution’s two main officials.
Source: TSF
