Africa Monitor

Africa Monitor Intelligence

Guinea-Bissau: Sissoco committed to an ethnic balance

UMARU SISSOCO EMBALÓ (USE), PR of Guinea-Bissau, is determined to establish in Guinean society "new and fairer" ethnic balances. In his view, the current balanta dominance, which generates social tensions, is also one of the causes of chronic instability in the country. The others, which he also promises to fight, are drug trafficking and corruption.
The social rise of the Balantas to the present dimension, presents in its remote origin facts like the election of KUMBA YALÁ (KY) as PR, in 2000 and the control that from 2004 Balanta officers (marginalized until 1998) started to gradually exercise in the FA, always following serious internal crises. KY, of Balanta origin, had founded a party with the same ethnic extraction, the PRS.
The campaign against corruption constantly reaffirmed by USE and in the light of which he considers, in private, that the dismissal of NUNO GOMES NABIAN (NGN) is "appropriate", is used by him to also try to mobilize in his favor cadres of the PRS (party of ethnic extraction) placed in the Public Administration, including in the Government. In general, they are reputed to be corrupt, due to manifestations of enrichment and private ostentation. READ MORE