Four men, including former Speaker of the National Assembly Delfim Neves and an ex-mercenary, attempted to attack the army headquarters.
A coup attempt failed on the night of Thursday November 24 to Friday November 25 in Sao Tome and Principe, a small island country in the Gulf of Guinea considered a model of parliamentary democracy in Africa, announced Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada.
Four men, including the former president of the outgoing National Assembly Delfim Neves and a former mercenary who had already been the author of an attempted putsch in 2009, who were arrested, tried to attack the headquarters of the army, said Patrice Trovoada in a video authenticated and sent to AFP in Libreville by the Minister of Justice Ilsa Maria dos Santos Amado Vaz.
Gunfire in army HQ
The head of government, who appears seated at a desk, with tired features, in a T-shirt under a raincoat, insisted on “to reassure» the population and «the international community“. “There was a coup attempt that started around 12:40 a.m. and (…) ended shortly after 6 a.m.“, he continued, adding: “The armed forces suffered an attack in a barracks“.
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A resident contacted by telephone by AFP said on condition of anonymity that she had heard “firing of automatic weapons and heavier weapons, as well as detonations, lasting two hours inside the army headquartersin the capital Sao Tome.
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