Guinea-Bissau govt reshuffled, PM retains job

1143

Guinea-Bissau’s President Malam Bacai Sanha reshuffled his government keeping his prime minister but moving the heads of nine of the country’s ministries, according to a presidential decree.

Opposition parties have held several rallies in recent weeks calling for Sanha to sack Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior, but the president appears to be seeking to extend a run of relative stability after years of chaos in the tiny West African nation.

New members of government include Baciro Dja who, as defence minister, will have to oversee the prickly issue of reforming an armed forces with a long history of meddling in politics and, more recently, involvement in the cocaine trade, Reuters reports.

Helena Nosolini Embalo remains minister of the economy.

Gomes Junior has been in his job for three years, a record for the former Portuguese colony that has experienced little but conflict and coups since independence.

The country saw its president and army chief assassinated in 2009, and last year a revolt in the military put factions accused of collaborating with Latin American drug cartels firmly in charge.

But political bickering appears to have eased and stability has been aided by the arrival of Angolan soldiers who, along with regional bloc ECOWAS, are due to help reform the security forces.