West African Bloc Mediators Hold Talks with Guinea-Bissau Transitional Leaders

ECOWAS sent a high-level mediation team to Guinea-Bissau to resolve the political crisis following last week’s military coup. Talks with transitional leaders were described as constructive, and a one-year transition proposal will be presented at an ECOWAS summit on December 14. The coup occurred amid disputed presidential election results, with both the incumbent and an independent candidate claiming victory.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) sent a high-level mediation team to Guinea-Bissau on Monday to engage with the country’s transitional authorities and seek a peaceful resolution to the political crisis triggered by last week’s military coup. The delegation was led by Sierra Leone’s president and ECOWAS chairman, Julius Maada Bio, who met with transitional President Gen. Horta Inta-A and his team in Bissau. After their closed-door meeting, both sides told reporters they had “constructive discussions,” signaling cautious progress toward restoring calm.

Bio reaffirmed ECOWAS’ firm position against the coup, stressing the bloc’s condemnation of the military’s seizure of power. He reiterated the demand for the immediate return to constitutional order and a rapid continuation of the electoral process. Guinea-Bissau’s transitional foreign minister, Joao Bernardo Vieira, described the engagement with ECOWAS as “very productive,” noting that discussions were moving in a positive direction.

He announced that a proposal for a one-year transition period had been drafted and would be presented at the upcoming ECOWAS summit scheduled for December 14 in Abuja, Nigeria. It is at this summit that regional leaders are expected to decide the final transition roadmap for Guinea-Bissau. ECOWAS had suspended Guinea-Bissau last Thursday from all its decision-making bodies following the military takeover that removed President Umaro Sissoco Embalo from office.

During their mission, ECOWAS mediators also met with election officials to assess whether the presidential election results could be released. However, Leonardo Simao, the UN representative for West Africa and the Sahel, disclosed that the National Electoral Commission said it was unable to publish the official outcome of both the presidential and legislative polls. The commission explained that it had not received all the necessary results, making it impossible to meet ECOWAS’ demand for immediate publication. The mediators are expected to submit a full report to regional heads of state, who will then decide the next steps.

The crisis deepened last Wednesday when a group of military officers calling themselves the “High Military Command for the Restoration of National Security and Public Order” appeared on state television to announce that they had taken control of state power. Their intervention came at a time of heightened political tension, as both incumbent President Embalo and independent candidate Fernando Dias claimed victory in the November 23 presidential election while the country awaited official results.