New Economy Forum
Cocaine Smugglers May Cash in on Guinea-Bissau Politics Feud
- Crisis deepens with delay of legislative vote, aid suspension
- Suspected Jihadist link to drugs trade raises concerns
Vehicles move through Bissau.
Photographer: Xaume Olleros/Bloomberg
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A political feud in the sleepy capital of Guinea-Bissau is threatening to push one of the world’s poorest countries back to being a haven for gangs smuggling cocaine into Europe and open the door to Islamist militants.
Today the only sign of the crisis is an armored vehicle of African peacekeepers next to the Portuguese colonial palace home of President Jose Mario Vaz, who’s involved in a bitter power struggle with his own party, known as PAIGC, and has fired six prime ministers since he took power in 2014. Instability has wracked the West African nation since independence in 1974, and no president has finished his term since the first multi-party elections in 1994.