PRESIDENT of Guinea-Bissau Umaro Sissoco Embalo called for calm today following an attempted coup on Tuesday.

He insisted that the situation was under control as he addressed the nation on television and said that unidentified armed assailants had attacked the government building in the capital Bissau when he was attending a cabinet meeting.

“It wasn’t just a coup,” Mr Embalo said. “It was an attempt to kill the president, the prime minister and the entire cabinet.”

Security forces eventually repelled the attack but lost “many members” during a gun battle, which he said lasted for hours.

The president slammed the operation as “a failed attack against democracy,” saying it had been “well prepared and organised.”

Mr Embalo sought to dispel rumours earlier in the day that government officials were being held hostage and he said that a number of those involved in the putsch had been arrested.

The country’s armed forces were not involved in the plot, he added.

“I can assure you that no camp joined this attempted coup. It was isolated. It is linked to people we have fought against,” Mr Embalo said without giving further details.

Guinea-Bissau has seen nine coups or attempted coups since it won independence from Portugal in 1974, with only one democratically elected president completing a full term of office,

It was the latest attempted power grab in west Africa with coups in Mali, Chad and Guinea in the last 18 months.

Last week the military seized power in Burkina Faso, ousting president Roch Marc Christian Kabore who faced months of protests over his failure to deal with a jihadist insurgency.