President of Guinea-Bissau assassinated

The president of Guinea-Bissau was assassinated Monday morning, a day after an explosion killed the head of the West African country's military, the prime minister said.

It was not immediately clear how President Joao Bernardo Vieira, 69, died. Prime Minister Carlos Gomes confirmed the death to CNN.

Early Monday, gunfire and rocket explosions that lasted for about an hour were heard near the presidential palace in the capital, Bissau, according to local media. Looting was later reported at the presidential palace.

Army spokesman Zamora Induta said an aide to the president was killed during the gunfire.

He added that the gunmen remained at-large and that a 10-member-commission will manage the army until a new chief of staff is named.

The army, he said, will remain neutral.

Gen. Tagme Na Waie, chief of Guinea-Bissau's military, was killed in a bomb explosion in his office Sunday, according to local news reports. Five other high-ranking military officials were wounded, two of them critically.

After the attack, all local radio stations were ordered to immediately suspend their programs.

Na Waie's predecessor also was assassinated. Soldiers shot and killed Gen. Verissimo Correia Seabra in October 2004.

Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, has a history of military coups. Monday's development is the latest violence over four months as the army and Guinea-Bissau's president have clashed.

The tiny west African country, located between Guinea and Senegal, has a population of 1.5 million and is considered one of the five poorest countries in the world, according to the CIA Factbook.

The country has been in a near-constant state of political upheaval since independence from Portugal in 1974.

In 1980, Vieira became president after a military coup. He was accused of purging political rivals and suppressing dissent, but several coup attempts throughout the 1980s and early 1990s failed to unseat him.

In 1994, the country held its first free elections, and Vieira was elected president. He held the post for five years, until a military mutiny ousted him, and the country plunged into civil war.

Successor Kumba Yala took office in 2000. He also was unseated in a military coup after three years.

Yala's ouster paved the way for Vieira to run for office again. In 2005, he was re-elected president, pledging to pursue economic development and national reconciliation.

Dayum he's black...

whatever more violence in Africa, we need to just like... nuke em.

Flamez wrote:

Dayum he's black...

whatever more violence in Africa, we need to just like... nuke em.

Because genocide solves everything...

I do have to wonder what these military factions want from a leader who is in office for such a short amount of time to do though. They need to calm down and give them some time to get their work done.

actually, it would solve a lot of problems in africa.

jews were clean. Africans.

....HAH.

Flamez wrote:

actually, it would solve a lot of problems in africa.

jews were clean. Africans.

....HAH.

Umm, how were jews clean if you don't mind my asking? Also, what makes Africans not clean? Because if it is the civil war that is almost reasonable.

It's in the Jews scriptures to be clean, not eat pork, and not eat shellfish. Which made them different, which got them all persecuted by people before hitler even came around.

Civil African War is as reasonable as gangs in the US. If they stopped fucking fighting over one person having a bar of soap, and someone not having a bar of soap everyone could have soap!

Not if there was only one bar of soap. Then somebody would have to use the liquid soap, and we all know that is no good for dropping in the showers at jail. *wink wink*