Guinea-Bissau, 2023 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an event coded as an attempted dissident coup in Guinea-Bissau on 30 November to 1 December 2023, when clashes broke out between rival security force units in Bissau that President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, returning from an overseas trip, declared to be an attempted coup that had been foiled. The trouble erupted from tensions within the security apparatus: elements of the National Guard, reportedly acting after two detained officials, a finance minister and a secretary of state, were forcibly freed from custody by armed men, clashed with the presidential guard in overnight fighting in the capital. Embalo, who was abroad at a climate summit, cut short his trip, returned, and characterized the violence as an attempted coup linked to political and drug trafficking interests.
In its aftermath, he dissolved the opposition dominated parliament, which had been elected months earlier in a vote his opponents had won, a move critics denounced as an opportunistic power grab dressed up as a response to the coup. The episode deepened Guinea-Bissau's chronic political and military instability and Embalo's confrontations with the opposition, in a country long trapped in cycles of coups, mutinies, and drug fueled turmoil.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
40411302023
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Umaro Sissoco Embalo declared the November 2023 clashes an attempted coup and dissolved the opposition-led parliament.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Associated Press (AP)
Vanguard
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →