Domingos Simões Pereira detained in Guinea-Bissau

Opposition leader Domingos Simões Pereira, president of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), was placed in preventive detention on 10 July 2026 by a military tribunal in Bissau. He is accused of involvement in at least two coup attempts – one in late 2023 and another in October 2025 – and of economic offences. His lawyers and supporters describe the arrest as a politically motivated move to bar him from the presidential election scheduled for 6 December 2026, and they have boycotted the trial, calling the procedure illegal.

The Portuguese Communist Party condemned the detention and urged the Portuguese government to intervene for Pereira’s safety and release. Civil‑society groups and the ECOWAS mediation platform have also criticised the regime’s “passivity” and warned the arrest deepens Guinea‑Bissau’s institutional crisis. The PAIGC’s permanent commission accused President Umaro Sissoco Embaló’s regime of seeking to eliminate Pereira politically and even physically, alleging a broader campaign to suppress opposition ahead of upcoming elections.