Gambiaj.com – (BISSAU) – Three ministers have resigned following the ruling coalition’s stakeholder party of the Assembly of the United People-Democratic Party of Guinea-Bissau (APU-PDGB) withdrawing political confidence in President Umaro Sissoco Embaló. This resignations came three days after the party’s decision and has triggered a significant political crisis.

On Tuesday, June 18th, the Minister of Energy, Valentino Ernesto Hideberto Infanda, the Minister of Youth, Culture and Sports, Augusto Gomes, and the Secretary of State for Youth, Garcia Biifa, submitted their resignation letters to Prime Minister Rui Duarte de Barros.

Infanda’s resignation letter, obtained by Voice of America, cited the party’s decision and mentioned that his powers had been “fragmented.” He expressed that continuing in the government would subject him to “a state of discouragement.” This letter was dated June 15th, coinciding with the party’s withdrawal of confidence in President Embaló.

Gomes and Biifa also presented their resignations, aligning with the party’s “superior guidelines” and citing “political reasons” for their departure from the government.

President Embaló dismissed the resignations as a “minor issue” and criticized what he termed as “political childishness” in Guinea-Bissau. He remarked, “This does not deserve analysis at the Council of Ministers meeting. For some time now, there has been a lot of political childishness, and everything has limits. I’m tired of this,” following an extraordinary Council of Ministers meeting.

These resignations mark the first significant losses for the Executive since the dissolution of Parliament on December 4, 2023.

The APU-PDGB, led by former Prime Minister Nuno Gomes Nabiam, issued a political statement on June 15th, withdrawing “political trust” from President Embaló. The party ordered all its members and leaders to resign from their government positions, citing “obedience and respect for the party statutes.”

In its declaration, the APU-PDGB highlighted a “serious situation” involving a surge in drug trafficking in the country, with alleged involvement of state agents. The party also condemned “criminal acts committed by the palace militias of the President of the Republic against defenseless citizens in demonstrations and other abuses of authority.”

The party, which supported Embaló in the 2019 presidential elections, accused him of “serious interference” in the internal affairs of various political parties, including MADEM-G15, PRS, PAIGC, and APU-PDGB. This interference has allegedly led to “division, indiscipline, disorder, and anarchy within these parties, through corruption and political grooming.”

Prime Minister Rui Duarte de Barros has yet to comment on the resignations and the ongoing political crisis.