Human rights defenders in West Africa are condemning the "total lack of concrete progress" in implementing the resolutions adopted by ECOWAS in Guinea-Bissau following the coup d'état of November 26, 2025. More than a month after the ECOWAS Summit of Heads of State and Government, held on December 14, 2025, in Abuja, Nigeria, Afrikajom (Senegal), the Senegalese League for Human Rights (Senegal), Raddho (Senegal), the Popular Front (Guinea-Bissau), Africtivistes (Senegal), Espace de concertation (Guinea-Bissau), the Citizen Movement (Senegal), the Solidarity Network for Democracy in West Africa (Ghana), and the Edward Francis Small Centre for Rights and Justice (Gambia) have expressed their deep concern about the "unacceptable delay" in the return to constitutional order. Guinea-Bissau.

“More than a month after the ECOWAS Summit of Heads of State and Government, held on December 14, 2025 in Abuja, Nigeria, the people of Guinea-Bissau note with deep perplexity the total absence of concrete progress in the implementation of the resolutions adopted at that time. At the same time, there has been a marked deterioration of the political and social situation in Guinea-Bissau, resulting from the coup d'état orchestrated on November 26, 2025 by Úmaro Sissoco Embaló and his circle of military leaders, with the aim of preventing the proclamation of the electoral victory of independent candidate Fernando Dias da Costa,” they emphasize in a joint statement received by Seneweb.

They added: “In its final communiqué, ECOWAS explicitly recognized the validity of the elections, rejected any military transition, demanded the return of the military to their barracks, the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, and guarantees of the security of political actors and state institutions. However, several weeks later, none of these decisions have been fully respected. Political prisoners remain detained in inhumane conditions, while attacks, arbitrary detentions, kidnappings, and acts of intimidation against citizens, political leaders, human rights activists, journalists, and political analysts are on the rise, under the pretext of ‘higher orders.’”

According to them, these practices constitute "a serious and systematic violation of the Constitution of the Republic, the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance and the resolutions of the summit itself."

According to these human rights defenders, "several political and military figures are still deprived of their liberty without benefiting from the minimum conditions of detention, including the president of the National People's Assembly and leader of the PAIGC, Domingos Simões Pereira, the lawyer and political commentator Augusto Nasambé, as well as other citizens of Guinea-Bissau."

“On January 8, 2026, the so-called High Military Command attempted to illegitimately impose a ban on press conferences without prior authorization, in a direct attack on the freedom of expression enshrined in the constitution. At the same time, serious acts of violence were reported, including the fatal attack on a young man in Bissau by individuals in uniform and the violent repression of a peaceful vigil organized to demand the immediate release of all those illegally detained, which resulted in arbitrary arrests and serious injuries,” they recalled in the document.

"It should be emphasized that Úmaro Sissoco Embaló was the main person responsible for the coup of November 26 and continues to guide the actions of the de facto authorities. The maintenance of his photos in official buildings and the appointment of people he trusts to key positions in the Guinea-Bissau public administration constitute irrefutable evidence of institutional complicity in the usurpation of power," the text reads.

For these human rights defenders, the visit to Bissau on January 10 by a high-level ECOWAS delegation, led by the bloc's current chairman, ended "without any official communication, reinforcing doubts about the regional organization's capacity and resolve to enforce its own decisions. While ECOWAS and the international community remain inactive, the coup leaders are deliberately exacerbating the institutional crisis by having a so-called new constitution adopted by the National Transitional Council, a manifestly illegitimate body without a constitutional basis, while simultaneously preparing to illegally amend the main laws governing the Guinean political system."

Faced with these facts and "the real risks of increased social, political and economic instability", these social, civic and human rights organizations in West Africa urge ECOWAS to "urgently apply individual and collective sanctions against the civilian and military perpetrators of the usurpation of power, and to create the necessary conditions for the immediate assumption of office by the democratically elected president, Fernando Dias da Costa".

They also urged the international community, including the African Union, the United Nations, the CPLP and the European Union, to "adopt firm and coordinated measures, demand the immediate and unconditional release of all persons illegally and arbitrarily detained, and unequivocally defend the sovereign will of the people of Guinea-Bissau."