Guinea-Bissau, 1999 — military coup

Event Summary

On 7 May 1999 the military juntai of Brigadier General Ansumane Mane ousted President Joao Bernardo Nino Vieira of Guinea-Bissau, ending the civil war that had begun on 7 June 1998 when Mane mutinied after Vieira dismissed him as armed forces chief of staff over allegations of arms smuggling to Casamance separatists in Senegal. Government forces backed by Senegalese and Guinean troops had held parts of Bissau through months of destructive urban fighting that displaced roughly a quarter of a million people. The November 1998 Abuja accord created a national unity government, but implementation faltered, foreign troops withdrew, and in early May 1999 junta forces launched a final offensive on the capital.

Loyalist resistance collapsed and Vieira, who had ruled since his own 1980 coup, took refuge in a foreign embassy in Bissau and subsequently went into exile in Portugal. Mane briefly served as head of state as chairman of the military juntai until 14 May, when National Assembly speaker Malam Bacai Sanha became acting president. Elections in November 1999 and January 2000 brought Kumba Iala to the presidency.