Bissau-Guinean president sacks economy minister

Bissau. Bissau-Guinean President Umaro Sissoco Embalo sacked his economy minister on Thursday and temporarily handed over his portfolio to the prime minister, a presidential decree said.

Victor Mandiga was replaced “to guarantee the regular functioning of the institutions”, he specifies.

Prime Minister Nuno Gomes Nabiam would temporarily assume the role of Minister of Economy, Planning and Regional Integration.

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The ousted minister did not immediately respond to the announcement.

But he had recently objected to what he described as the finance ministry’s involvement in some of his ministry’s affairs and the foreign ministry’s oversight of a new state secretary to the regional integration – one of the responsibilities of his ministry.

He no longer regularly attended cabinet meetings.

Mandiga, an economist, leads the Democratic Convergence Party (PDC), which holds a single seat in a 102-member parliament dominated by the president’s supporters.

He supported Embalo in the 2019 presidential elections which brought him to power.

The former Portuguese colony of around two million people is notoriously unstable and has suffered four military coups since 1974, the most recent in 2012.

A failed coup attempt in February left 11 people dead.