Guinea-Bissau: EU lifts restrictions on nine army officers

The European Union (EU) has removed nine military personnel from the list of 21 persons targeted by sanctions for their involvement in the 12 April 2012 coup d’état in Guinea-Bissau following a proposal from the High Representative for Foreign Policy.

The lifting of the restrictive measures applied in May 2012, published this week in the EU Official Journal and which entered into force today, covers Generals Augusto Mário Có and Saya Braia Na Nhapka, Colonels Tomás Djassi, Celestino de Carvalho and Cranha Danfá, Major Samuel Fernandes, Naval Commander Agostinho Sousa Cordeiro, Lieutenant Lassana Camará and Lieutenant Colonel Tcham Na Man (“Naman”).

The nine military personnel were part of a sanctions list drawn up by the EU following the April 2012 coup d’état in Guinea-Bissau, which initially covered six military personnel, including the chief of general staff of the Guinea-Bissau armed forces, General António Indjai, and which was extended to 21 individuals targeted for restrictive measures – banned from travelling to any European Union member state and whose assets become subject to a freeze in the EU area – with the inclusion of a further 15 members of the then military command a few weeks later.

Of the nine people now removed from the list, General Augusto Mário Có was the only one on the first sanctions list, adopted on 04 May 2012. The remaining eight were part of the list of 15 military personnel sanctioned later that same month. All were part of the military command that took responsibility for the coup d’état 10 years ago.

In the text published in the Official Journal, it is stated that the Council considered that “taking into account the proposal of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy”, the Council (an institution in which the 27 EU Member States are represented) decided to remove nine persons from the list. This decision entered into force today.

Moreover, the Council also decided to change the title of the sanctions regulation: when adopted in 2012, the regulation imposed “restrictive measures against certain persons, entities and bodies threatening the peace, security or stability of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau”, and now it is simply the regulation imposing restrictive measures “given the situation in Guinea-Bissau”.