G.Bissau military announces reopening of borders following coup

Military authorities in Guinea-Bissau announced the reopening of the country’s borders Thursday, one day after seizing power and derailing the electoral process following the coup-prone country’s general elections.

“All borders are now open”, General Lansana Mansali, inspector general of the armed forces, told AFP, reversing the prior day’s closure of all land, air and sea entry.

– ‘Deep concern’ –

Guinea-Bissau is among the world’s poorest countries and is also a hub for drug trafficking between Latin America and Europe, a trade facilitated by the nation’s long history of political tumult.

Political stability was one of the major issues in the election, given the nation’s turbulent past. In October the country’s army said it thwarted an “attempt to subvert the constitutional order” and arrested several senior military officers.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “following the situation with deep concern”, his spokesman said, while the country’s former colonial ruler Portugal discouraged “any act of institutional or civic violence”.

Sadibou Marong, director of Reporters Without Borders’s Sub-Saharan Africa office, meanwhile said the country’s media suspension amounted to a serious violation of the right to information.

“The population must be able to be informed about what is happening in the country, especially in this context of political crisis”, he said.

The west African region has been rife with coups in recent years, with Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Guinea all seeing their governments toppled.

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