BISSAU (Reuters) – Guinea Bissau President Malam Bacai Sanha died yesterday in a Paris hospital, his office said, raising fears of a fresh power struggle in the chaotic West African state.
Sanha had been in poor health since coming to power in 2009 and left Guinea Bissau in late November for treatment abroad.
The US embassy in Dakar warned its citizens yesterday that there was an “an increased potential for political instability and civil or military unrest” as a result of reports of Sanha’s death. The coastal state is notorious as a stopoff for cocaine being smuggled into Europe from South America and has suffered several coups since independence from Portugal in 1974.
“With pain and sadness, the president’s office reports to the people of Guinea Bissau and to the international community the death of His Excellency the President, Malam Bacai Sanha, this morning, January 9, at Val de Grace Hospital where he was being treated,” the statement said.
It did not disclose the cause of death but the 64-year-old was believed to be suffering from diabetes, and a foreign ministry source told Reuters he was placed in an artificial coma during his treatment in Paris.
