Guinea Bissau’s president Jose Mario Vaz has dismissed the government following disagreements with Prime Minister Domingo Pereira, the Portuguese news agency Lusa reported on Thursday.
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BBC Africa’s Zenaida Machado says the announcement follows weeks of tension between the president and the prime minister.
Tensions, motivated by overlapping duties in Guinea Bissau’s semi-presidential system, have grown between the President and Pereira since elections restored civilian rule last year following a 2012 coup. He received 40.9 percent of the vote in the dozen-candidate first round and 61.9 percent in the runoff, soundly beating the military-backed Nuno Gomes Nabiam to take office in June 2014.
In a televised address, Mr Vaz said a simple reshuffle would not be sufficient to solve the problem.
The party, which has a slender majority in the national assembly with 57 members of parliament out of 102, was expected to meet at executive level on Thursday to consider naming a new prime minister, according to sources in the PAIGC, which is led by Pereira.
The presidential decree accused the government of hindering justice, promoting corruption and lack of transparency in management of public funds.
Last week, Pereira had announced that his government would likely be dissolved due to differences of opinion with Vaz.
Welcoming ongoing efforts of regional and global actors to encourage dialogue among Guinea-Bissau’s political leadership, the members of the Security Council recalled the Council’s commitment to support the authorities of Guinea-Bissau and noted that the pledges made at the March 2015, Brussels worldwide Donor Conference require a stable political environment in order to most effectively materialize.
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US drug enforcement officials see the country as a “narco-state” and several senior military officials have been charged by the United States with drug trafficking.
