Guinea-Bissau profile

Map of Guinea-Bissau

Once hailed as a potential model for African development, Guinea-Bissau is now one of the poorest countries in the world.

It has a massive foreign debt and an economy that relies heavily on foreign aid.

Compounding this, the country experienced a bitter civil war in the late 1990s in which thousands were killed, wounded or displaced.


At a glance

Workers processing cashew nuts
  • Politics: This former Portuguese colony has suffered a civil war and several coups, the latest in April 2012
  • Economy: Political instability and mismanagement have undermined the economy. Country is dependent on primary crops - mainly cashew nuts - and subsistence agriculture. Government often struggles to pay wages.
  • International: Country has become transhipment point for Latin American drugs; army clashed with Senegal's Casamance separatists in 2006

Country profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring

In 1980 he was overthrown by his army chief, Joao Vieira, who accused him of corruption and mismanagement. Mr Vieira led the country towards a market economy and a multi-party system, but was accused of crony capitalism, corruption and autocracy. In 1994 he was chosen as president in Guinea-Bissau's first free elections.

Four years later he was ousted after he dismissed his army chief, thereby triggering a crippling civil war. This eventually ended after foreign mediation led to a truce, policed by West African peacekeepers, and free elections in January 2000.

The victor in the poll, Kumba Yala, was ousted in a bloodless military coup in September 2003. The military chief who led the coup said the move was, in part, a response to the worsening economic and political situation.

Mr Vieira won the 2005 elections but his rule was brought to a bloody end in March 2009, when renegade soldiers entered his palace and shot him dead, reportedly to avenge the killing hours earlier of the army chief, a rival of the president.

The country's vital cashew nut crop provides a modest living for most of Guinea-Bissau's farmers and is the main source of foreign exchange.


Guinea-Bissau parliament Guinea-Bissau's parliament in the capital Bissau

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