Bissau junta says hands power back to civilians

Six weeks after it toppled the government and derailed elections, Guinea-Bissau's military junta said on Tuesday it was handing power back to the West African state's civilian leaders.   

The announcement follows a deal between the self-styled Military Command and the regional bloc ECOWAS that put in place transitional president Manuel Sherifo Nhamadjo, installed a 600-strong ECOWAS force and promised new elections in 12 months.   

"Starting today, the Military Command will hand power to civilians," spokesman Daha Bana Na Walna told reporters, adding that this would be the junta's last news conference.   

Nhamadjo announced later on Tuesday the nomination of 28 government ministers, including a defense minister and interior minister, drawn mostly from the former opposition parties.   

Guinea-Bissau has suffered several coups and army uprisings since independence from Portugal in 1974, but the latest one has set back western efforts to combat drugs cartels using the country as a transshipment point to Europe.   

Coming shortly after the March 22 coup by mutinous soldiers in democratic Mali, it also further undermined West Africa's fragile gains in democracy.   

Bissau soldiers took power in an overnight putsch on April 12, detaining interim president Raimundo Pereira and former Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior, the front-runner in presidential elections.   

Released later, both fled the country.   

The Military Command, believed to have been headed by Armed Forces Chief Antonio Indjai, has said repeatedly since the coup that it wanted to remove Gomes Junior from the election process because he had made a "secret pact" with Angola to eliminate Guinea-Bissau's military leadership.   

Gomes Junior had been prime minister for years and was a vocal supporter of efforts to reform the army, notorious for meddling in politics, and to combat cocaine smuggling. The United States has named two top Guinea-Bissau military officers as drugs kingpins.  

REUTERS