After exchanging heavy gunfire with members of the Bissau-Guinean army’s special forces for several hours on Friday, December 1, 2023, the commander of Guinea-Bissau’s National Guard, Colonel Victor Tchongo, has been arrested and taken into custody.

According to a source at the General Staff of the Armed Forces, regular military troops under the General Defense Staff’s command detained Colonel Victor Tchongo, the National Guard’s operations commander, and certain members of the National Guard’s Rapid Intervention Brigade (BIR) who backed him during his armed assault.

According to the same source, Suleimane Seidi, the Minister of Economy and Finance, and António Monteiro, the Secretary of State for the Treasury, were also found on the grounds of the National Guard barracks. They were subsequently brought to the Judiciary Police headquarters, close to the Bandim supermarket.

The Secretary of State for the Treasury and the Minister of Finance “arrived safely, without any injuries,” according to judicial authorities in Bissau.

Thursday night, members of the National Guard stormed the Judiciary Police headquarters in front of the Bandim market, releasing Secretary of State for the Treasury António Monteiro and Minister of Economy and Finance Suleimane Seidi.

Monteiro and Seidi were questioned in the afternoon of November 30, 2023, to clarify the transfer of six billion CFA francs to 11 businesses, which translates to around ten million US dollars. The hearing lasted more than four hours and was presided over by a team from the Anti-Corruption Office’s Commission of Inquiry, following which the two government members were placed in pre-trial detention.

The forceful attempt to release the Minister of Finance and the Secretary of State for the Treasury from prison by members of the BIR of the National Guard in the early hours of this Friday, at around 1:20 a.m., resulted in heavy gunshots heard in Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau, lasting until this morning.