The President of the tiny West African state of Guinea-Bissau was shot dead, apparently in revenge, yesterday, hours after the army chief was killed. The deaths plunged Africa’s first “narco-state” into crisis.

Joao Bernardo Vieira, the President, and General Tagme Na Waie died only hours apart. General Na Waie was killed by a bomb at army headquarters and hours later Mr Vieira was shot as he tried to flee his home in the capital, Bissau.

“President Vieira was killed by the army as he tried to flee his house, which was being attacked by a group of soldiers loyal to the chief of staff,” said Captain Zamora Induta, a military spokesman. He said that Mr Vieira was “one of the main people responsible for the death of [General Na Waie]”.

The Economic Community of West African States – a regional trade bloc – called the killings “the assassination of democracy”. The African Union condemned the President’s murder as a criminal act. Mr Vieira, 69, ruled Guinea-Bissau from 1980 to 1999 before being deposed in a military coup. He returned from exile in 2004 and was reinstated as President at elections the following year. Tensions between him and army remained high. In July the head of the navy fled the country after a failed coup attempt.

Days after parliamentary elections in November, in which Mr Vieira’s alliance was heavily defeated at the polls, gunmen attacked the presidential palace with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades, leading Mr Vieira to establish a 400-strong unit of presidential bodyguards. The militia was partly disarmed by the army after its gunmen were accused of shooting at General Na Waie’s convoy in January.

Diplomats have accused senior government and military officials of involvement in the growing cocaine trade through West Africa. They point out that, as head of the army, General Na Waie was in a strong position to profit from drugs and could ensure that shipments were not seized by the ill-equipped police force.

Much of the estimated 50 tonnes of cocaine destined for Europe that pass through the region every year goes through Guinea-Bissau, one of the impoverished region’s poorest and weakest states.

Its ragged coastline has been a haven for South American cartels seeking new routes to Europe.

Analysts said yesterday that the death of General Na Waie bore the hallmarks of an attack by drug cartels.

There are fears that the instability might spread beyond the rundown capital. “This is a very bad situation,” said Richard Moncrieff, the West Africa project director at the International Crisis Group. “There is now a power vacuum.”

Troubled country

1.5m population

$904.4m GDP

$600 GDP per capita

102/1,000 infant mortality rate

10% HIV/Aids among adults

42.4% literacy rate

47.52 life expectancy in years

3 airports with paved runways

41% proportion of population under age of 14

19.2 average age in years

5 average number of years in school

Source: CIA Factbook

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