Guinea-Bissau's President Embalo deposed as military officers announce takeover

Guinea-Bissau's President Umaro Sissoco Embalo told France24 on Wednesday that he was deposed after military officers claimed taking total control of the country, citing the need to clarify the situation before returning to constitutional order.

Hours earlier, gunfire rang out near the presidential palace, an AFP journalist said.

After this, Guinea-Bissau military officers declared taking "total control" of the country on Wednesday, just three days after the country held presidential and legislative elections in which both major candidates claimed victory. 

Hours before the announcement, gunfire was heard outside the presidential palace, according to an AFP journalist. 

Military officers in Guinea-Bissau announced Wednesday they were taking "total control" of the country while suspending its electoral process and closing its borders, three days after the poverty-stricken west African nation's legislative and presidential elections.

Military personnel made the announcement by reading a statement at army headquarters in the capital, Bissau, AFP journalists observed on the scene.

Earlier in the day gunfire was heard near the coup-prone country's presidential palace as men in military uniform took over the main road leading to the building.

As shots rang out, people and vehicles fled from the area, the AFP journalist observed.

Official provisional vote results are expected Thursday in the tumultuous west African country, which has experienced four coups since independence, as well as multiple attempted coups.

Both the current president, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, and opposition candidate Fernando Dias have declared victory.

A passerby fleeing from the chaotic scene said "we're used to it in Bissau".

Embalo had been expected to win the election, which until Wednesday had passed off peacefully.

The vote had notably excluded the main opposition party PAIGC and its candidate Domingos Simoes Pereira from the ballot.

Pereira and PAIGC were struck from the final list of candidates and parties published in October by the Supreme Court, which said they had filed their official applications too late.

Pereira and Embalo are political arch-rivals: the last presidential election in 2019 was marked by a four-month post-election crisis as both men claimed victory.

The head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) observation mission, Issifu Baba Braimah Kamara, had on Tuesday just praised the "peaceful conduct of the vote".

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 country's long history of political instability.