ADDIS ABABA, March 3 – The African Union’s Peace and Security Council convened on Tuesday to discuss measures following the assassination of Guinea-Bissau’s President Joao Bernardo Vieira.
Ambassadors went into closed-door talks at the 53-nation body’s headquarters in Addis Ababa, a day after soldiers shot and killed the veteran president as he fled his home in Bissau.
According to the AU’s statutes, member states should be suspended in the event of an unconstitutional power change, as were Mauritania and Guinea Conakry following coups last year.
On Monday, AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping condemned the assassination, which he described as a coup apparently organised by members of the military.
The 69-year-old Vieira was gunned down early Monday in what a military spokesman said was a reaction to the bomb attack that killed the west African country’s army chief hours earlier.
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