1. Home
  2. West Africa
  3. Guinea-Bissau

Prime Minister Fadul takes oath of office

Guinea-Bissau’s government of national unity was installed on Saturday with the swearing into office of Prime Minister Francesco Fadul, news reports said. Speaking on the occasion, Fadul said that the disruption caused by the civil war made it impossible for him to organise national elections sooner than September, Reuters reported. Under a peace accord signed in December 1998, that ended months of an army rebellion against President Joao Bernardo Vieira, the elections were to have been held by end March at the latest. Fadul’s swearing-in ceremony was attended by Togolese Prime Minister Kwassi Kloutse, who represented President Gnassingbe Eyadema as chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS); Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama, his Gambian counterpart Sadat Jobe, Senegal’s Interior Minister Lamine Cise and other representatives from ECOWAS and neighboring Guinea. The event came a week after an accord was reached between Vieira and his rival, rebel leader and former army chief Ansumane Mane. Vieira has appointed five ministers and three state secretaries to the cabinet and Mane has chosen four ministers and an equal number of state secretaries, the Portuguese news agency Lusa reported. The agency said the foreign and justice ministers, Hilia Barber and Carlos Domingos, were Vieira appointees. Ministers of defence, the interior, and the economy - Silvestre Alves, Caetano Intchama and Abubacar Dahaba - were named by Mane’s Military Junta. The only official from the previous government is Pinho Brando, former secretary of state for energy. He is now the minister of agriculture. Fadul had said he would not take office before troops from Guinea and Senegal, who have been backing Vieira since the June army rebellion, had left the country. Some 900 Senegalese soldiers from a total of 2,500 have reportedly begun to withdraw.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

Share this article

Get the day’s top headlines in your inbox every morning

Starting at just $5 a month, you can become a member of The New Humanitarian and receive our premium newsletter, DAWNS Digest.

DAWNS Digest has been the trusted essential morning read for global aid and foreign policy professionals for more than 10 years.

Government, media, global governance organisations, NGOs, academics, and more subscribe to DAWNS to receive the day’s top global headlines of news and analysis in their inboxes every weekday morning.

It’s the perfect way to start your day.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian today and you’ll automatically be subscribed to DAWNS Digest – free of charge.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian

Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

Join