As always, the five friends had arrived at the main marketplace of Guinea-Bissau's capital early that morning, setting up stalls to sell soap, body lotion and food.
They had expected a normal day, but heavy gunfire suddenly erupted near the presidential palace in the city centre, driving shockwaves of fear and panic.
Sylla, 38, said they heard the first shots at around 1:00 pm (1300 GMT).
"What followed was general panic in the market. Everyone was running in all directions. Some people were even injured," the merchant told AFP, his face hard, as his friends nodded in agreement.
A few hours later, the army announced that it had ousted President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and seized power -- one day before provisional results of the November 23 presidential election were to be published.
Embalo, elected in 2020 and running for a second five-year term, has been detained.
The military junta on Thursday declared General Horta N'Tam, chief of staff of the army, the country's new leader for a period of one year.
- 'Used to these situations' -
Mohamed said he knew instantly that another coup was occurring when he heard the gunfire.
"We know how things work in this country. We're used to these situations," he told AFP.
Sandwiched between Guinea and Senegal, Guinea-Bissau has experienced four coups since independence from Portugal in 1974, as well as multiple attempted coups. Its election results are often contested.
Bissau was like a ghost town on Thursday, with most shops and businesses shuttered, public transport out of action and the streets semi-deserted.
"The country is paralysed. There isn't a single customer in the market," one shopkeeper said.
"We live day to day. We don't even have enough to eat," added another, both speaking on condition of anonymity for their safety.
Sitting listlessly across the road from the market, Mohamed and his companions all denounced the coup.
"Every time we feel hopeful about the country, a crisis occurs. This can't go on," soap seller Mamadou Woury Diallo said bitterly.
He said he had walked several kilometres to reach the market in hope of earning enough money to feed his family.
"How am I supposed to manage now? I don't have a cent, and I'll have to walk home."
- Disappointment -
Suncar Gassama lives in Portugal and visited Bissau for leisure. She never suspected she would witness the crisis unfolding.
"I was very happy to see Bissau-Guineans vote. But when I heard the gunfire, I became very sad to see my country, which I left 30 years ago, plunged back into this situation," the woman in her forties told AFP.
Gassama hopes Guinea-Bissau will move past violence and embrace democracy.
"Guinea-Bissau is a very rich country with all the conditions in place for a good life. I don't understand why Bissau-Guineans always have violence on their minds and are shooting everywhere," she said.
On Thursday, the junta ordered deserted markets and shopping centres to reopen.
G.Bissau president leaves country after coup: Senegal
Bissau (AFP) Nov 27, 2025 -
Guinea-Bissau's President Umaro Sissoco Embalo is in Senegal after being detained during a military coup in his country, the government in Dakar said Thursday, as a lead opponent accused him of arranging the uprising.
The military in volatile Guinea-Bissau earlier on Thursday appointed a general as the country's new leader, a day after seizing power and derailing the announcement of election results.
Opposition candidate Fernando Dias da Costa told AFP he believed he had won Sunday's election and alleged Embalo -- who has also claimed victory -- had "organised" the power grab to prevent him taking office.
Embalo arrived "safe and sound" in Senegal in a military plane chartered by its government, the country's foreign ministry said in a statement.
The coup struck just one day before authorities had been due to announce the provisional results of the presidential ballot and parliamentary polls.
General Horta N'Tam, chief of staff of the army, was designated the country's new leader for a period of one year.
He took the oath of office at the military's headquarters on Thursday, declaring: "I have just been sworn in to lead the High Command."
- Opposition candidate escapes -
N'Tam is considered to have been close in recent years to Embalo, whom he has now replaced.
Dias, who said he was safe and in hiding, was Embalo's main challenger after the main opposition candidate, Domingos Simoes Pereira, was barred by the supreme court from standing.
"I am the president (elect) of Guinea-Bissau," Dias told AFP by telephone, adding that he thought he might have garnered around 52 percent of the vote.
"There wasn't a coup," he alleged. It was "organised by Mr Embalo".
Dias said he had escaped from his campaign HQ on Wednesday when armed men came to arrest him.
Pereira, who backed Dias after being excluded from the electoral race, was himself arrested on Wednesday.
The military appointed General Tomas Djassi, formerly the personal chief of staff to President Embalo, as chief of staff of the armed forces on Thursday.
- 'Necessary measures' -
Bissau, capital of the west African country, was at a standstill on Thursday, AFP journalists observed.
Most shops and markets were closed and soldiers patrolled the streets.
The new military leaders banned "all media programming" and outlawed protests.
Surrounded by heavily armed soldiers, N'Tam told a press conference on Thursday the military had acted "to block operations that aimed to threaten our democracy".
He said evidence had been "sufficient to justify the operation", adding that "necessary measures are urgent and important and require everyone's participation".
General Denis N'Canha, head of the presidential military office, told journalists the army was assuming control "until further notice" after a plan involving "drug lords" had been uncovered, including "the introduction of weapons into the country to alter the constitutional order".
Land, air and sea borders -- which were all sealed off on Wednesday -- were reportedly reopened, however.
A nationwide curfew was lifted and the High Command ordered the "immediate reopening" of markets, schools and private institutions.
- 'Grave violation' -
Members of Guinea-Bissau's diaspora and researchers told AFP they queried the true motives behind the power grab, which they alleged could ultimately benefit Embalo.
Researchers interviewed by AFP said unverified preliminary results circulating before the coup showed opposition candidate Dias as the election winner.
"This is a coup aimed at preventing the opposition candidate, Fernando Dias, from seizing power," one West African researcher told AFP on Thursday on condition of anonymity.
"This is the ideal scenario for Mr Embalo, who could, following negotiations, be released and potentially reposition himself for the next elections."
The African Union on Thursday condemned the coup and demanded Embalo's immediate and unconditional release, while the chair of West African regional bloc ECOWAS, Julius Maada Bio, called the affair a "grave violation of Guinea-Bissau's constitutional order".
The European Union urged "a swift return to the constitutional order and the resumption of the electoral process".
Sandwiched between Guinea and Senegal, Guinea-Bissau has experienced four coups since independence from Portugal in 1974, as well as multiple attempted coups. Its election results are often contested.
"Every time we feel hopeful about the country, a crisis occurs," said Mamadou Woury Diallo, a soap seller struggling to earn his living at a market in Bissau. "This can't go on."
Related Links
Africa News - Resources, Health, Food
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
