Guinea-Bissau prime minister freed after abortive coup

Relative of Carlos Gomes Junior says he has been released after brief detention by military
Carlos Gomes Junior, Prime Minister of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau
Carlos Gomes Junior has been released after being briefly detained by soldiers. Photograph: Andre Kosters/EPA

The prime minister of Guinea-Bissau, Carlos Gomes Junior, has been released after being briefly detained by soldiers in an apparent coup attempt.

Military music played on the radio, a telltale sign of a coup, during the incident. Gomes was released hours later as hundreds of people gathered in front of his office chanting "Never a coup d'etat in Guinea-Bissau."

The minister of territorial administration, Luis Sanca, said he and the prime minister were abducted by the soldiers at 8am and taken to the capital's main military camp, where they saw the head of the armed forces, Zamora Induta, also under guard.

Sanca said the soldiers released him and Gomes at about 11 but were still holding the army chief.

"The prime minister has been freed and is meeting the president," said a family member, who asked not to be named. Mamadou Diao, the prime minister's press attache, confirmed the release.

The incident happened minutes after another group of soldiers went to the nearby UN offices and walked out with Bubo Na Tchuto, a former head of the navy who had sought refuge after being suspected of leading a failed coup in 2008.

Na Tchuto took refuge in the UN offices in the capital, Bissau, after returning from exile in nearby Gambia by canoe, disguised as a fisherman, in December.

In early January, the UN and Guinea-Bissau agreed he would be handed over to Gomes Junior's government, but he remained on the UN premises.

His return prompted a tightening of security, including increased road checks. The west African state of Guinea-Bissau has lurched from one crisis to another since gaining independence in 1974.

Last March, President Joao Bernardo Vieira and the head of the army, General Tagme Na Waie, were assassinated.

Guinea-Bissau has been racked by instability since winning its fight for independence from Portugal.

It has suffered a succession of coups, and in recent years has become a transit point for South American cocaine heading for Europe.

With more than 100 tiny islands, most of which are uninhabited, drug traffickers have little difficulty in moving large shipments of cocaine in and out of the country.

There were hopes of stability after successful parliamentary elections were held in November 2008, but the killings of Na Waie and Vieira triggered renewed uncertainty.

The International Crisis Group thinktank said the deaths underlined the influence of the military's involvement and its implications for stability and democracy. Vieira came to power in a military coup in 1980, crushing any political opposition and purging political rivals.

He survived several coup attempts during his rule and was elected president in the country's first free election in 1994.

He was ousted in 1999 following an army mutiny and a brief civil war, but was re-elected as president in 2005.