Guinea-Bissau’s Embaló Continues to Dare ECOWAS

By Paul Ejime

By threatening to expel the joint mission of ECOWAS and the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) from Guinea-Bissau, President Umaro Sissoco Embaló, who has been ruling his country as a dictator, has not only displayed unacceptable hostility but utter disregard to the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government which approved the mission.

Led by Ambassador Bagudu Hirse, Nigeria’s former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, the Mission said in a statement on Saturday that it “departed Guinea-Bissau in the early hours of 1st March 2025 following threats by President Embaló to expel it.”

The 66th Ordinary Session of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of States and Government held on 15th December 2024 in Abuja, “directed the ECOWAS Commission to deploy a high-level political mission to the country to support efforts by the political actors and stakeholders toward political consensus on the electoral calendar.”

President Embaló was one of the seven Heads of State who attended the Abuja summit that authorized the Bissau Mission.

Before the Mission’s travel to Guinea-Bissau, the ECOWAS Commission in a statement, said the objective of the 23-28 February 2025 mission was “to accompany Guinea Bissau with the requisite technical support toward a successful electoral cycle and the promotion of peace, security, and stability in the country.”

The Mission in its statement said that while in Bissau it was “received by President Embaló and held consultations with a broad range of stakeholders, including the authorities, political actors, electoral management entities and civil society organizations as well as bilateral and international partners.”

The Mission added that it “took note of issues and concerns raised by stakeholders… and …prepared a draft agreement on the road-map for the conduct of legislative and presidential elections in 2025.”

The statement did not say what led to President Embaló’s threats to expel the Mission. However, diplomatic sources in Bissau and Abuja said that members of the delegation “were independent-minded, unbiased and displayed a high sense of professionalism by holding consultations with stakeholders across board, including opposition figures blacklisted by President Embaló,” who now fear government repercussions after speaking with the ECOWAS-UNOWAS Joint mission.

President Embalo assumed office in February 2020 following a disputed December 2019 presidential poll, whose outcome was finally decided by the Supreme Court in September 2020.  His tenure has been characterized by instability and political tensions, including two unproven military coups, whose alleged plotters are detained without trial amid repression of the opposition and shrinking of the democratic space.

He dissolved Guinea-Bissau’s opposition-controlled parliament unconstitutionally barely five months after the last legislative elections in June 2023, while the national constitution and electoral commission are virtually under suspension and the Supreme Court hijacked by the president.

Human rights are suppressed with citizens complaining of living in fear.

ECOWAS has a military Mission in Guinea-Bissau, ECOMIB, which is charged with stabilizing the country, but critics claim the president uses the force for his protection due to the Force’s flawed terms of reference, which must be reviewed if it is to remain in the country.

There are also indications that the Bissau government is “hobnobbing with some foreign powers for possible assistance, in case ECOMIB is withdrawn.”

Last month, the Supreme Court sat without a quorum and controversially ruled that President Embalo should remain in office until 4 th September 2025, because his tenure began after the apex Court decided the 2019 presidential election in his favour in September 2020, and not on 27th February 2020 when he took the oath of office.

The latest ruling followed a case brought by a member of President Embalo’s political party. Legal experts have dismissed the case and the ruling as lacking judicial merit.

Legislative and Presidential elections, which were expected to have been held in November 2024, are tentatively scheduled between October and November 2025.

By threatening to expel the ECOWAS-UNOWAS Joint mission from Guinea-Bissau, one of the highest recipients of financial, technical and material support from the regional economic bloc and international partners, President Embaló displays an affront and unprecedented disrespect to the authorities of both organizations.

Without the support of ECOWAS and partners, Guinea-Bissau would have succumbed to the catastrophic consequences of perennial insecurity and the destabilising activities of drug barons.

The country is considered more as a drainpipe than an asset in the region and President Embaló’s tenure as ECOWAS rotating Chairman of the Authority (2022- 2023) was marked by gross mismanagement of the fall-out of military coups which the organization has yet to recover from.

It was under his Chairmanship that ECOWAS imposed harsh, unprecedented and sweeping sanctions against the coup makers, which foreclosed any negotiations and facilitated the breakaway of three ECOWAS countries.

Recently, Embalo tried to warm up to the new Sonko-Faye government in Senegal, by electing to serve as an unsolicited mediator in the long-running crisis between Dakar and the separatist Casamance Movement, even though he supported former President Macky Sall’s unsuccessful third-term gamble.

President Embaló must have been emboldened in his ill-treatment of the joint international mission to his country because his chain of unconstitutional actions in violation of the ECOWAS protocols have not attracted appropriate consequences.

Therefore, ECOWAS and partners must take drastic measures against the Guinea-Bissau leader’s unrelenting bad conduct to serve as a deterrent against similar behaviours in the future, otherwise, the regional bloc risks losing what is left of its tainted image or relevance.

A starting point would be an urgent review of ECOMIB’s terms of reference or its outright withdrawal from the country.

Petrified Guinea Bissau citizens should be encouraged and supported to approach the ECOWAS Court of Justice to defend their human rights.

All legal and necessary steps should be taken to wrest Guinea-Bissau from Embalo’s authoritarian stranglehold and save the region from an avoidable political and humanitarian catastrophe.

The ECOWAS-UNOWAS Joint Mission to Guinea-Bissau included Ms Barrie Freeman, Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (DSRSG) of UNOWAS, Ambassador Kalilou Traore, Ivorian Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS representing the ECOWAS Permanent Representatives’ Committee, and Ambassador Babatunde Ajisomo, former ECOWAS Representative to Liberia, Special Adviser to the Head of Mission.

Other members were Gambian diplomat Cherno Mamoudu Jallow, a former Senior Political Advisor, Office of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in DR Congo & MONUSCO and Mr. Papa Birame Sene, from Senegal’s Elections Directorate.

The Mission was supported by a technical team led by Ambassador Ngozi Ukaeje, ECOWAS Resident Representative in Guinea Bissau, and staff of the Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security, of the ECOWAS Commission.