Guinea-Bissau

Overview

Guinea-Bissau, officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, is a West African country of 36,125 km² (about a quarter water, including the Bijagós archipelago of 88 islands) bordering Senegal and Guinea, with Bissau as capital; its name adds "Bissau" to distinguish it from neighbouring Guinea. Population is about 2.1 million.

History

Before European contact, the region hosted the Kingdom of Bissau, Biafada kingdoms, and the Mandinka Kaabu federation (1537–1867), a successor to the Mali Empire; coastal peoples were drawn early into the Atlantic slave trade, with thousands exported annually from ports like Cacheu and Guinala. Portuguese explorers arrived in the 1450s, but effective control remained confined to coastal forts until late-19th-century "pacification campaigns" subdued the interior (the Kingdom of Bissau fell only in 1915) as the colony of Portuguese Guinea.

The African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), founded in 1956 by Amílcar Cabral, launched an armed liberation war in 1963 — one of Africa's most successful guerrilla struggles — controlling most of the countryside by 1973, though Cabral was assassinated that January. Independence was declared unilaterally on 24 September 1973 and recognised by Portugal on 10 September 1974 after Lisbon's Carnation Revolution; Luís Cabral became first president of a one-party socialist state. João Bernardo "Nino" Vieira overthrew him in 1980, ruling until multiparty elections in 1994. An army revolt triggered the 1998–99 civil war that ousted Vieira. There followed chronic instability: coups in 2003 and 2012, Vieira's return to the presidency (2005) and assassination (2009), President Sanhá's death in office (2012), José Mário Vaz's first completed term (2014–2019), and Umaro Sissoco Embaló's contested presidency, which survived alleged coup attempts in 2022 and 2023 before the military seized power on 26 November 2025, three days after disputed elections, installing General Horta Inta-A Na Man as transitional president; ECOWAS and the African Union suspended the country.

Later history and present status

One of the world's poorest states, Guinea-Bissau depends on cashew nuts, fishing, and subsistence agriculture, and since the 2000s has been a cocaine transshipment hub dubbed a potential "narco-state." Portuguese is official but Guinea-Bissau Creole is the lingua franca; the largest groups are Fulani, Balanta, and Mandinka, split between Islam (~50%) and Christianity (~38%) with strong traditional religions.