Guinea’s ruling junta on Thursday railed against the incumbent president of ECOWAS, calling him a “guignol” before a summit of this organization where sanctions against Guinea could be discussed.
The junta criticizes the current president of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Bissau-Guinean Umaro Sissoco Embalo, for his statements to the French media RFI and France 24 on Wednesday.
Mr. Embalo had warned that Guinea was going to face “heavy sanctions” if the junta which came to power by force in September 2021 persisted in wanting to stay there for three years. He had reaffirmed that during a visit to Guinea he had obtained an agreement with the junta to give way to elected civilians after two years, which the junta called a “lie”.
“We noted with astonishment and exasperation the new release of the public entertainer of Bissau, a puppet in the mantle of a statesman”, said in a press release the Prime Minister said of transition, Bernard Goumou.
He describes Mr. Embalo as an “overexcited guy”, who “broke” to the presidency of ECOWAS.
“In addition to geographical proximity, a blood link unites us to Guinea Bissau. No! No political upstart, let alone a poorly briefed opportunist, will lead us to destroy this precious heritage”, he adds.
The leaders of the member states of ECOWAS were to meet for a summit Thursday afternoon in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, with the situation in Guinea as well as the crisis between Mali and Côte d’Ivoire all at the top of their agenda.
In a video posted on social networks, Colonel Amara Camara, one of the figures of the Guinean junta and secretary general of the so-called transitional presidency, criticizes Mr. Embalo for having forced the hand of his West African counterparts for the holding a summit outside West Africa and wanting to do the same with sanctions against Guinea.
“By imposing on his peers the holding of this summit outside his geographical space, his leadership will have made it possible to give the opportunity to others not to take us seriously, unless that is his objective”, he said. -he throws.
Colonel Camara accuses Mr. Embalo, since his accession to the rotating presidency of the conference of West African heads of state a few weeks ago, of becoming famous for “his personal positions in defiance of his presidential counterparts” , and to “show off” ECOWAS.
He accuses President Embalo of maneuvers to promote the candidate of his choice for a future Guinean presidential election.
He calls claims of a junta commitment to a transition limited to two years a “gross lie”.