On the night of Thursday to Friday, power was threatened in Sao Tome and Principe. Army Chief of Staff Olinto Paquete announced on Sunday the deaths of four people who had been arrested following a failed coup attempt.
Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada announced on Friday that he had foiled a coup attempt in this small Portuguese-speaking archipelago, considered a model of parliamentary democracy in Africa. A four-man commando had been captured on Friday after six hours of firefights at army headquarters. “Four citizens” with “12 army soldiers” tried to occupy military installations, the chief of staff said.
Confusing Circumstances
Regarding the four dead, three of them who had been “captured and neutralized”, died of their “wounds”, Olinto Paquete said on Sunday, without giving further details on the circumstances which remain unclear.
The fourth dead, Arlecio Costa, is a former Santomean mercenary from the sulphurous South African group “Bataillon Buffalo”, dismantled in 1993 by Pretoria, who had been accused on Friday by Patrice Trovoada of being one of the sponsors. Here too, the circumstances of his death remain unclear: his arrest was announced by the authorities on Friday and, on Sunday, Olinto Paquete explained that he died after “jumping from a vehicle”.
Two open investigations
In this context, a judicial source indicated on condition of anonymity the opening of two investigations: the first concerning the attack on the army headquarters, the second on the facts of “murder” and “torture” against alleged perpetrators of the coup attempt. A judicial source was also unable to say whether or not Arlecio Costa had been arrested at army headquarters with the three other people. In February 2009, then leader of a small opposition party, he had already been arrested and accused of being the leader of a foiled coup attempt.
At the end of a Council of Ministers held on Sunday, the government “strongly condemned” what it described as a “violent attempt to subvert the constitutional order”. The government notably urged the hospital services to “properly preserve the bodies” of the victims, adding that an “international team”, including a forensic doctor, must join the archipelago to support the teams of investigators.
Several other people, including the former number 1 of Parliament, Delfim Nevès, were arrested on Friday after being denounced by the commando responsible for the assault on the army headquarters. Delfim Nevès was the president of the outgoing National Assembly and lost this function on November 11 during the installation of the new chamber resulting from the legislative elections of September 25, won by an absolute majority by the center right party of the Prime Minister, Independent Democratic Action (ADI).