Aborted coup attempt reported

An attempted coup was foiled in Guinea-Bissau and a number of military officers arrested, news organisations reported, quoting an Interior Ministry communique issued on Monday. The Portuguese news agency, LUSA, reported that the coup attempt was staged on Sunday. According to RDP Africa, a Portuguese radio station, the attempt was reportedly led by Deputy Army Chief of Staff Almami Kamara, who was arrested along with former navy officer Lamine Mane, who had been navy chief of staff until he was dismissed by President Kumba Yala. Several other officers were on the run, RDP quoted the Interior Ministry as saying. It said many were linked to former President Nino Vieira, overthrown in May 1999 by a military junta led by the late General Ansumane Mane. Mane died one year ago, following a botched bid to take over the armed forces in what Yala's government had also described as a coup attempt. For months now, Guinea-Bissau has been in the throes of a constitutional crisis whose main ingredients have included the dismissal of Supreme Court judges by the president, the jailing of some of the judges, and the paralysis of government - which faces a parliament in which its supporters are in the minority.