Guinea-Bissau’s president, army chief killed

Soldiers killed Guinea-Bissau’s President Joao Bernado “Nino” Vieira on Monday in an apparent revenge attack for the slaying of the army chief of the unstable West African country.

Small arms fire and heavy weapons resounded in Bissau city in the early hours, subsiding at first light. Most residents stayed at home as it was unclear who was in control of a nation that has become a key transit point for drug smuggling.

“The death of Head of State Joao Bernardo Vieira is confirmed. His wife is at the Angolan embassy,” Sandji Fati, a retired army colonel and close associate of the slain president, told Reuters in the capital Bissau.

Former colonial power Portugal and the African Union condemned the killings and called for the restoration of order.

Fati said Vieira was killed when he refused to go with Angolan diplomats who took his wife to safety. Security sources and residents who live near the president’s house confirmed Vieira had been killed at home.

The country’s 1.6 million people have endured years of instability since independence in 1974. This has been fuelled in recent years by the country’s emergence as a key transit point in the smuggling of Latin American cocaine to Europe.

Vieira was a former military ruler who was ousted during a civil war in the 1990s and returned to power in a 2005 election.

He had been at odds with armed forces chief of staff General Batista Tagme Na Wai, who was killed in an attack on Sunday evening that also destroyed part of the military headquarters.