Military officials in the small West African nation of Guinea-Bissau have announced a new leader one day after seizing power in a military coup.

General Horta Nta Na Man was named as the head of a one-year transitional government at about noon (12:00 GMT) on Thursday. In a statement, he justified the seizure of power and said the army had taken charge in the face of threats to Guinea-Bissau’s stability.

On Wednesday, the military arrested President Umaro Sissoco Embalo just hours before the results of a tense presidential vote held over the weekend were due to be announced.

The coup came after incumbent Embalo and opposition candidate Fernando Dias both declared victory in the Sunday elections. The military leaders, who appeared on national TV to make their announcement, said they were acting to stop attempts to “manipulate electoral results”.

The country’s electoral commissioner, Dias, and other top military officials were also arrested.

Wednesday’s military takeover is the latest in a string of coups across West Africa that have fractured the regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which is eager to crack down on military interventions and to instil democratic principles of government.

In a joint statement with the African Union hours after the putsch, the bloc condemned the action despite what it described as an orderly and peaceful vote monitored by its observers on Sunday.

Coastal Guinea-Bissau, wedged between Senegal and Guinea, has experienced nine coup attempts since its independence from Portugal in 1974, with the most recent failed attempt reported in late October.

The country has, in recent years, emerged as a major drug-trafficking hub between Latin America and Europe. Embalo’s critics have accused him of staging crises to stay in power.

Here’s what we know about the coup and what it means:

What happened?

Signs of trouble began when gunfire rang out on Wednesday afternoon near the presidential palace in the capital, Bissau.

Army officers appeared on state television shortly afterwards, announcing they had seized power in response to the “discovery of an ongoing plan” they said was aimed at destabilising the country and aimed to “manipulate electoral results”.

Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, reporting from nearby Senegal, said the army officer leading the coup, Brigadier General Denis N’Canha, had served as the head of the presidential guard before the takeover.

“The man supposed to protect the president himself has put the president under arrest,” Haque said, adding that there appeared to be attempts by the military to cut the internet.

N’Canha, on state TV, announced that officers had formed “the High Military Command for the Restoration of Order”.

“The High Military Command for the re-establishment of national and public order decides to immediately depose the president of the republic, to suspend, until new orders, all of the institutions of the republic of Guinea-Bissau,” he said.

He claimed that the alleged plot to destabilise the country was being coordinated by “some national politicians with the participation of a well-known drug lord and domestic and foreign nationals”, without giving further details.

The soldiers added that the ongoing electoral process and media coverage had been suspended. They also closed off the country’s land, sea and air borders and imposed a nighttime curfew.

According to The Associated Press news agency, roads leading to the palace were closed off and checkpoints were being manned by heavily armed, masked soldiers. A palace official told the AP that a group of armed men had attacked the building, leading to a gunfire exchange with presidential guards. Officials also reported gunshots near the National Electoral Commission.

Hundreds of people fled on foot and in vehicles, seeking shelter as shots rang out, the AFP news agency reported.

Who has been arrested and where are they now?

French news outlet Jeune Afrique quoted President Embalo as saying he had been arrested at about 1pm in his office, in what he called a coup led by the head of the presidential military office, N’Canha. Embalo stated that he had not been subjected to violence. The president also told French broadcaster France 24 in a phone call: “I have been deposed.”

Military officials have not provided any information about where the president is being held.

Army chief of staff General Biague Na Ntam, his deputy, General Mamadou Toure, and Minister of Interior Botche Cande were arrested at the same time, and are all being held at the army headquarters, Jeune Afrique quoted Embalo as saying.

Reuters, quoting anonymous sources, reported that opposition candidate Dias of the Party for Social Renewal, as well as Domingos Simoes Pereira, former prime minister and the head of the main opposition PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde), had been arrested.

In a Facebook statement on Wednesday, PAIGC confirmed Pereira and Dias’s arrests and added that another party leader, lawyer Octavio Lopes, had also been detained. Pereira had been preparing to stand as the main opposition candidate in the election, but his PAIGC party was barred after the electoral commission said it had failed to submit its application on time. Pereira thereafter endorsed the little-known Dias in the elections.

Was Embalo facing a legitimacy crisis?

Yes, 53-year-old Embalo was facing a legitimacy crisis in the lead-up to the coup, and his leadership has been marred by political infighting. The former army general was first elected in 2019, backed by a coalition of parties known as Madem G15, which had separated from the then-ruling PAIGC party.

PAIGC, which launched an independence war against Portugal in 1974, has dominated the government in the decades since.

However, after Embalo was sworn in, in February 2020, the opposition challenged his victory and the Supreme Court did not recognise him as president until September 2020.

The president was subjected to what he called attempted coups in February 2022, December 2023, and in October this year, leading to multiple arrests, especially of military officers.

Embalo’s critics, however, have accused him of fabricating crises in order to crack down on dissent. Following the December 2023 coup attempt, for example, which began as a clash between a unit in the army and the presidential guard, Embalo ordered that the opposition-controlled parliament be dissolved. Parliament has not reconvened since, and Embalo has ruled through decrees.

In March, President Embalo announced he would again run for office, amid tensions with opposition groups who questioned his legitimacy.

He said he aimed to make history in the turbulent country by being the first leader in 30 years to secure a second consecutive term. But opposition groups said they did not recognise his presidency and accused him of delaying elections till November, when his mandate originally ended in February 2025. A Supreme Court ruling said Embalo’s term ended in September.

In October, PAIGC also accused Embalo of heavy-handed tactics after the party was barred from the vote on a technicality. It was the first time in the country’s history that the former governing party had been excluded from elections.

How did the election go?

In the lead-up to Sunday’s tightly contested elections, Embalo campaigned on stability while the Pereira-backed Dias campaigned on change. Campaigns were marred by accusations of corruption and hate speech from both sides, but the votes passed without incident.

On Tuesday, however, both Embalo and Dias declared victory in the elections.

In a Facebook statement following the coup, PAIGC said the military intervention was an attempt to stop the electoral authority from declaring victory for Dias.

PAIGC “considers this fact as manoeuvres to disrupt the electoral process, which was already in the final stage of dissemination of provisional results”, the party said. It urged the electoral commission to go ahead and publish election results “which gave Dr Fernando Dias da Costa a big victory, assuring him victory right on the first lap”.

On Wednesday, the Bissau-Guinean civil society coalition, Frente Popular or Popular Front, also accused Embalo and the army of staging a “simulated coup” to block the release of election results.

“This manoeuvre aims to prevent the publication of the electoral results scheduled for tomorrow, Nov 27,” the group said in a statement on Wednesday. It claimed Embalo’s statements to international media were proof of this.

The deposed president, the group alleged, planned to name a new president and interim prime minister, then call new elections in which he intended to run again.

Was Embalo’s government vulnerable?

Beverly Ochieng, West Africa analyst at the intelligence firm Control Risks, told Al Jazeera that the constant infighting had made Embalo’s government vulnerable.

“Over the course of Embalo’s presidency, the legislature, judiciary and various government institutions have either been rendered nonoperational or operating under capacity,” she said.

Political infighting and the banning of PAIGC “likely contributed to a military intervention – even though there is a school of thought that this may have been staged to play up vulnerabilities against Embalo”, Ochieng added.

Political analyst Ryan Cummings said Embalo’s past moves lent credibility to claims of a sham coup against him that could see him reinstated by the military government. But, he added, it is also “highly plausible” the military acted alone to avoid a deadlock in a country where 70 percent of the 1.6 million population is poor.

“There have been growing concerns that longstanding disputes between Embalo and (the opposition) had forced Guinea-Bissau into a political deadlock which has been detrimental to the socioeconomic trajectory of the country,” he said.

Is there a link to the drug trade?

It’s unclear how much the country’s rising profile as a drug hub is tied to the coup. The military coup leaders claim there was an effort to “manipulate” the election by “national leaders” working with drug cartels, but have not provided any evidence.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) first warned in 2008 that Guinea-Bissau risked becoming a “narco state”. Since then, major drug busts in the country continue to cement it as a drug-trafficking hub, with dealers found by investigators to be working with help from the military.

In September 2019, a major drug operation by local security officials and backed by the UNODC led to the arrests of Bissau-Guinean, Colombian, Mexican and Portuguese nationals who were tried and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

A 2020 report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime warned that the drug trade could increase under the newly elected Embalo because key figures in the military had backed his presidency. The report did not allege direct links between Embalo and the drug trade.

Ex-navy chief Jose Bubo Na Tchuto was arrested off the country’s coast by US forces and sentenced in October 2016 to four years in prison by a Manhattan court for conspiring to import drugs into the United States. He was the highest-ranking government official to be sentenced for drug trafficking.

“The drug cartels’ influence is depending on the lack of the legitimacy (of the government),” political analyst Aly Fary Ndiaye told Al Jazeera. “If, for example, we have a military coup, they will be more likely to create an environment through which they can grow their business by supporting or funding those who are in the army, so that they can shut their eyes and let them grow their business.”

How has the international community reacted to the coup?

Election observers from the AU and ECOWAS were still in Bissau when Wednesday’s coup occurred, including former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan and former Mozambican president Filipe Nyusi. The delegation appears to now be trapped in the country.

In a joint AU-ECOWAS statement signed by the former leaders, the blocs condemned the coup and called for the electoral process to be resumed. Both candidates, the statement said, had agreed to accept the vote results after the delegation engaged them in talks.

“We deplore this blatant attempt to disrupt the democratic process and the gains that have been achieved thus far,” the statement read. “We express concern of the arrests of top officials including those that are in charge of the electoral process. In this regard, we urge the armed forces to immediately release the detained officials to allow the country’s electoral process to proceed to its conclusion.”

Analyst Ochieng said ECOWAS was not vocal enough during the course of Embalo’s “political overreach”, including when he unilaterally dissolved parliament. The bloc, she said, is struggling to instil respect for democratic practices and public institutions because it fails to proactively uphold strict democratic standards, something the militaries are exploiting.

Meanwhile, the governments of Ghana and Nigeria have condemned the coup. Portugal and Qatar have also called for a resumption of the electoral process.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “appeals to all national stakeholders in Guinea-Bissau to exercise restraint and respect the rule of law,” Stephane Dujarric, his spokesperson, told reporters on Wednesday.

What happens next?

On Thursday, the military announced the reopening of borders after swearing in General Horta Nta Na Man for a transitional period of 12 months. Not much is known yet about the military leader.

Bissau was quiet and still being heavily patrolled by security forces on Thursday, although PAIGC called for a rally in front of the Ministry of the Interior, according to reporting by French radio channel, RFI.

The calm, though, belies what is likely to be a period of political uncertainty ahead, whether Embalo is reinstated or not, analysts say. Opposition candidates are unlikely to accept military rule and Embalo’s return may cement the theories of a ruse, and prompt protests which could be violent.

Meanwhile, the African Union and ECOWAS will likely pressure the military to return to democratic rule as soon as possible, Cummings said. Both have, in the past, suspended and sanctioned countries in which coups have taken place, before reinstating them after clear timelines for elections are set.

ECOWAS upheld suspensions on the military-led Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger for several months before the three exited the bloc and formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) in January.