8 of 8 events · 1880 – 2025
Sovereign state in Western Africa
1880s – 1920s
The Portuguese campaigns of pacification and occupation (Portuguese: Campanhas de pacificação e ocupação) were a vast set of military operations, conducted by the Portuguese Armed Forces in the overseas provinces of the Portuguese Empire, between 1838 and 1936. Action was seen at Chaimite, in Mozambique, where Mouzinho de Albuquerque captured the Vatua king Gungunhana but also at Môngua, in Angola.
4 February 1961 – 25 April 1974
The Portuguese Colonial War (Portuguese: Guerra Colonial Portuguesa), also known in Portugal as the Overseas War (Guerra do Ultramar) or in the former colonies as the War of Liberation (Guerra de Libertação), and also known as the Angolan, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambican Wars of Independence, was a 13-year-long conflict fought between Portugal's military and the emerging nationalist movements in Portugal's African colonies between 1961 and 1974. The Portuguese regime at the time, the Estado Novo, was overthrown by a military coup in 1974, and the change in government brought the conflict to an…
14 November 1980
The 1980 Guinea-Bissau coup d'état was a bloodless military coup that took place in Guinea-Bissau on 14 November 1980, led by Prime Minister General João Bernardo Vieira. It led to the deposition of President Luís Cabral (half-brother of anti-colonial leader Amílcar Cabral), who held the office since 1973, while the country's War of Independence was still ongoing.
7 June 1998 – 10 May 1999
The Guinea-Bissau Civil War was fought from 7 June 1998 to 10 May 1999 and was triggered by an attempted coup d'état against the government of President João Bernardo Vieira led by Brigadier-General Ansumane Mané. Government forces, backed by neighbouring states, clashed with the coup leaders who had quickly gained almost total control over the country's armed forces.
14 September 2003
The 2003 Guinea-Bissau coup d'état was the bloodless military coup that took place in Guinea-Bissau on 14 September 2003, led by General Veríssimo Correia Seabra against incumbent President Kumba Ialá. Seabra referred to the "incapacity" of Ialá's government as justification for the takeover, together with a stagnant economy, political instability, and military discontent over unpaid salaries.
2010
The military unrest occurred in Guinea-Bissau on 1 April 2010. Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior was placed under house arrest by soldiers, who also detained Army Chief of Staff Zamora Induta.
12 April 2012
On 12 April 2012, a coup d'état in Guinea-Bissau was staged by elements of the armed forces about two weeks before the second round of a presidential election between Carlos Gomes Júnior and Kumba Ialá. The coup started in the evening with military personnel and equipment making its way onto the streets, followed by the state-owned media being taken off-air.
26 November 2025
On 26 November 2025, the president of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, was arrested as part of a coup d'état carried out by Head of the Military Office of the Presidency Brigadier General Dinis Incanha. Military officers declared "total control" over the country and established the High Military Command for the Restoration of National Security and Public Order led by General Horta Inta-A Na Man.