Chaos, numerous victims: The whereabouts of president and prime minister were unknown

Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embal said in a video on the Facebook profile of the presidency, published a few hours after the shooting near the complex where government sessions are being held, that some people connected with those events were arrested, but he could not specify their number, Reuters reports.
As heavy gunfire was heard in Guinea Bissau's capital, Bissau, on Tuesday, it was unclear whether another coup d'tat was carried out in the West African country. For several hours, it was not known where the president and the prime minister were. It was later announced on the president's Facebook account that he had returned to the capital, and on an unverified Twitter account, his message was conveyed that he's fine and that the situation was under government control, Reuters reports.
The African Union and the West African bloc ECOWAS have condemned what they referred to as an attempted military coup in Guinea-Bissau. If it succeeded, it would be the second military coup in West Africa in a short time, after the coup in Burkina Faso on January 24. Decades of political instability are undermining the stability of Guinea-Bissau, a poor country in the tropics of West Africa.
Since gaining independence from Portugal in 1974, there have been nine coups or coup attempts in Guinea-Bissau.