Coup bid foiled in Guinea-Bissau

President Joao Bernardo Vieira survived an apparent coup attempt Sunday in this West African nation after guards at his heavily fortified home fought off mutinous soldiers in a three-hour gun battle, Interior Minister Cipriano Cassama said.

The attack began with heavy artillery fire on the home. Though Vieira and his wife were not hurt, at least one guard died and several others were injured, Cassama said.

“These people attacked my residence with a single objective -- to physically liquidate me,” Vieira told the nation in a televised news conference from his home. The walls were scarred with bullets and the floors were littered with casings. “No one has the right to massacre the people of Guinea-Bissau in order to steal power by means of the gun,” he said.

Calm appeared to have returned to the capital, Bissau, and Vieira assured the country that the “situation is under control.”

Guinea-Bissau, an impoverished nation on Africa’s Atlantic coast, has had multiple coups and attempted coups since 1980, when Vieira first took power in one and ruled until 1998. The U.N. says Guinea-Bissau is a key transit point for cocaine smuggled from Latin America to Europe.

In parliamentary elections a week ago, opposition leader and former President Kumba Yala accused Vieira of being the country’s top drug trafficker. The president did not comment on the accusation.

Senegal ordered troops to its border with Guinea-Bissau after receiving a call from Vieira. The African Union condemned Sunday’s attack, as did U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Ban noted “with great concern reports of the alleged involvement of elements of the armed forces of Guinea-Bissau in the attack, and calls upon them to refrain from any measures that could further destabilize the country,” his spokesman said.