The U.N.'s special envoy to Guinea Bissau, Miguel Trovoada, told the
15-member Security Council that the dismissed government had been a
representative one that could have helped keep the country stable.
Guinea-Bissau's President Jose Mario Vaz arrives to speak with journalists after a meeting with his Portuguese counterpart Anibal Cavaco Silva (not pictured) at Belem presidential palace in Lisbon
The United Nations on Friday urged political groups in Guinea Bissau
to resume dialogue in the interest of ending an escalating power
struggle that threatens to further undermine stability in the
impoverished West African country.
Guinea Bissau President Jose Mario Vaz last week named Baciro Dja as the new prime minister in a bid to end a power vacuum after he dismissed the government of previous premier Domingos Simoes Pereira, according to a decree read on state radio.
The U.N.'s special envoy to Guinea Bissau, Miguel Trovoada,
told the 15-member Security Council that the dismissed government had
been a representative one that could have helped keep the country
stable.
"The government that has been removed was
inclusive and made up of almost all the representative political parties
in the popular national assembly, which assured that it had a
comfortable basis of parliamentary support," he said.
"It
would seem that the main conditions were in place to ensure that there
would be a framework of political stability that would be favorable to
the proper functioning of the state," Trovoada added.
The country's competing political parties need to resume dialogue if the crisis was to be set aside, he noted.
"The
lack of this essential dialogue has opened the door to further distrust
and has deepened antagonisms to such an extent that the country is now
at a point where it is today," Trovoada said.
Demonstrations
have so far been peaceful and without violence, Trovoada said, adding
that the military has made clear that they would staying out of the
political crisis and obey the constitution.
Brazilian Ambassador Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, chair of the Guinea Bissau section of the U.N. peacebuilding commission, said the crisis could have wider implications.
"The
current crisis carries the risk of having a negative impact on the
already fragile economic situation, on the stability of the country and
on its democratic gains," he said.
"Guinea-Bissau
was making good progress toward stabilization and development since the
elections of 2014," he added. "Our main goal should be to prevent that
the escalation of the political crisis undermines progress achieved so
far."
A 2012 coup was followed by two years of
unrest and a surge in drug trafficking, a concern to Western governments
and neighboring African states worried at having an unstable
narco-regime in an already fragile corner of West Africa.
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