Coup Atlas Research Database
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40410312025ConspiracyMilitary coup

Guinea-Bissau, 2025 — military coup conspiracy

Guinea-Bissau (GNB)West Africa, AfricaOctober 31, 2025

Event Summary

This entry is coded 31 October 2025, corresponding to the alleged coup plot in Guinea-Bissau revealed at the end of October 2025, which foreshadowed the 26 November 2025 coup that ousted President Umaro Sissoco Embalo. At the end of October 2025 a number of senior officers were arrested in connection with an alleged plot, coming amid an extremely tense pre-election climate: general elections were scheduled for 23 November 2025, the main opposition party, the PAIGC, had been barred from the presidential race, ECOWAS observers had withdrawn after being threatened with expulsion, and the opposition disputed Embalo's legitimacy, with a Supreme Court ruling that his term had ended in September. Analysts described a feature of Bissau-Guinean politics in which coups beget more coups.

Less than a month later, on 26 November 2025, military officers seized power, arrested Embalo, and halted the electoral count, with critics alleging the takeover was staged to keep Embalo in power by proxy. The 31 October 2025 coding matches the end-October plot in which senior officers were arrested.

Researched Details

Researched

Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.

Target identified in Coup Atlas research: Embalo's government arrested senior officers over an alleged end-October plot
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
President Umaro Sissoco Embalo (target)
arrested senior military officers
the pre-election crisis over the barred PAIGC opposition

Sources

The coup of November 2025 was itself foreshadowed by an alleged coup plot that was revealed at the end of October 2025, when a number of senior officers were arrested, suggesting a feature of this type of instability in which coups beget more coups.
SOURCE REVIEWED The Conversation: Guinea-Bissau's military takeover highlights the nation's sorry history of coups open source ↗
General elections were held on 23 November 2025 to elect the president and members of the National People's Assembly, with observers questioning the vote's credibility after the main opposition party, the PAIGC, was barred from contesting the presidential election, and there were allegations of a coup plot at the end of October 2025.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia: 2025 Guinea-Bissau coup d'etat open source ↗
On 26 November 2025 President Umaro Sissoco Embalo was arrested as part of a coup carried out by the head of the presidency's military office, with officers declaring total control a day before the election results were expected, in the ninth coup or attempted coup in Guinea-Bissau since independence.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia: 2025 Guinea-Bissau coup d'etat open source ↗

Editorial Note

Coded 31 Oct 2025 matches the end-October 2025 plot in which senior officers were arrested, which foreshadowed the 26 Nov 2025 coup (a distinct, successful takeover not covered by this Conspiracy entry). Second Guinea-Bissau record in the run (after the Mar 2024 context entry).

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
40410312025

How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.

Outcome and Target

Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Embalo's government arrested senior officers over an alleged end-October plot.

Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. 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

Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
⚑ This citation establishes the coded baseline record; use the claim-level sources above for the researched narrative.

Baseline Source-Document Entries

AllAfrica.com

“Une Tentative De Subversion Constitutionnel Led´ejou´ee`ala veille de la campagne´electoral e,”November 2,2025“E´lections-Ler´eg i meen place est entrain decr´eer les conditions pour se garantir une victoire,” November 3, 2025

The Pioneer

“Military officers arrested for alleged coup attempt,” November 2, 2025

Infobae

“El Ej´ercito de Guinea Bissau detiene a mandos militares por golpismo a un mes para las elecciones,” November 1, 2025

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 →

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