The junta that seized power in Guinea-Bissau in a coup has installed a National Transitional Council, according to a resolution published Thursday, in which the military justifies its intervention by an electoral context marked, according to them, by a "risk of civil war of an ethnic nature".

On November 26, the day before the expected announcement of the provisional results of the presidential and legislative elections in this Portuguese-speaking West African country, the military overthrew outgoing President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, in power since 2020, and suspended the ongoing electoral process.

The junta has since appointed General Horta N'Tam, a close associate of Mr. Embalo, as president of a transition intended to last one year. A prime minister has also been appointed.

In a resolution issued Thursday and to which AFP had access, the High Military Command for the Restoration of Order announces the creation of a National Transitional Council, a political body for consultation.

This council is also responsible for preparing the instruments of transition and for monitoring the activities of the transitional governing bodies, according to the resolution, which does not specify the composition or the selection criteria for the members of this council.

Referring to the coup, the junta states in this resolution that the country was facing a "serious" political situation in an electoral context marked by disputes and tensions "that could degenerate into a civil war of an ethnic nature".

"The armed forces were once again forced to intervene, causing another change in the constitutional order by force," the document concludes.

Bissau-Guinean opposition leader Fernando Dias, Mr. Embalo's main opponent in the November 23 election, claimed on November 27 to have won the presidential election. He further accused former President Embalo of having "organized" the coup that suspended the electoral process.

On Tuesday, the electoral commission of Guinea-Bissau announced that it was unable to publish the results of the November 23 elections due to the destruction of tally sheets and electoral material by armed men "in balaclavas" on the day of the coup.

Located between Senegal and Guinea (Conakry), Guinea-Bissau, an unstable country, had already experienced four coups and a host of attempted coups since its independence from Portugal in 1974.