Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embalo
ACCRA, Feb 4 (NNN-Xinhua) — The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has decided to send a stabilization force to help stabilize the security situation in Guinea-Bissau after Tuesday’s failed coup, an ECOWAS official said.
ECOWAS Commission President Jean-Claude Kassi Brou said at a press briefing after an extraordinary summit of the authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government that the regional bloc has decided to offer military support to Guinea-Bissau to secure its democracy and sustain peace and security in the country.
“This is something that we will do very rapidly to ensure that this type of attempt of take-over power by force does not take place,” said Kassi Brou.
He said it took such a force from ECOWAS in the past to stabilize democracy in a country that experienced two military coups, a civil war, and a presidential assassination by the military since 1994.
The government of Guinea-Bissau on Wednesday confirmed 11 people died during a failed coup attempt that took place in the country on Tuesday. — NNN-XINHUA