Soldiers attack Bissau army HQ over pay

Soldiers of Guinea-Bissau in a military camp in Bissau. By Seyllou Diallo (AFP/File)

BISSAU (AFP) - Soldiers demanding better pay attacked the headquarters of the armed forces in Guinea-Bissau on Monday and fanned out across the streets of the small west African state's capital.

There were no immediate reports of any bloodshed and sources among the mutinous soldiers were quick to dismiss any suggestion of a coup in the absence of the troubled country's president, who is undergoing treatment in France.

"We were caught off guard this morning by armed men who attacked the joint command as well as two other military units inside the headquarters," General Antonio Indjai told reporters.

"These men were attempting to get hold of weapons we had stored in the gun shop," he said without elaborating further.

Two military officials speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity said a number of navy officers were involved in the incident.

General Indjai was inside the headquarters compound in the central district of Bissau Velho when the renegade soldiers attacked but spoke to journalists from a military base in Bissalanca near the airport.

A soldier presenting himself as one of the leaders of the deployed forces told AFP on condition of anonymity that they were out to demand a pay rise.

"This is a purely military problem. We have no intention of attacking the state," the soldier said.

According to him, the government in November granted a pay increase to the army "to enable us to have a good Christmas," but this money went only to a handful of soldiers.

According to military sources, the military headquarters were attacked at 0630 GMT on Monday by soldiers who overran the compound by firing shots in the air for close to half an hour.

Fully armed men then fanned out across the capital, erecting roadblocks around the headquarters of the general staff and in the avenue leading to the home of Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior.

Troops from different units could be seen, armed with machine-guns, Kalashnikov assault rifles and rocket-launchers.

Gomes briefly took refuge at the embassy of Angola, which has a small military mission in Guinea-Bissau, after soldiers paid him a visit at his house, located opposite the embassy, according to two aides and a non-Angolan diplomat.

"This is not a coup attempt. There's no panic here in Bissau," where Monday is a public holiday, the diplomat said.

No Angolan diplomats could be reached for comment and no explanation was available for the soldiers' visit to the prime minister's residence, to which he returned at midday, according to a member of his family.

Indjai, who was brought to the army's top job by mutinous soldiers last year, is a key player in the unstable former Portuguese colony and told AFP at the time that Gomes was a criminal who should be brought to justice.

The military action took place in the absence of President Malam Bacai Sanha, who is currently seeking medical care in France.

The presidency earlier this month denied rumours that the 64-year-old Sanha, who has spent most of his term in and out of the troubled country for health reasons, had died in a Paris hospital.

The president, who was elected in 2009 after his predecessor was assassinated, was admitted to a hospital in neighbouring Senegal last month before being transferred to the Val de Grace hospital, which frequently takes in ailing leaders of French allies.

Since independence from Portugal in 1974, Guinea-Bissau's history has been studded with coups, army mutinies and political murders. It has also become a drug-trafficking hub, mostly for cocaine to Europe.