Umaro Sissoco Embalo Becomes PM Of Troubled Guinea-Bissau

BISSAU, , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Nov, 2016 ) - Guinea-Bissau President Jose Mario Vaz on Friday named Umaro Sissoco Embalo as prime minister of the troubled west African state, replacing Baciro Dja whose government he dissolved earlier in the week.

"Mr Umaro El Mokhtar Sissoco Embalo is named prime minister," said a presidential decree. The new premier was sworn in later on Friday in a brief ceremony.

Monday's dissolution by the head of state aimed to solve a succession crisis that has paralysed the tiny west African state.

Guinea-Bissau has been in the throes of a power struggle since August 2015, when Vaz sacked then prime minister Domingos Simoes Pereira, leader of the ruling African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC).

Two factions of the ruling PAIGC had failed to resolve their differences over Pereira's successor, Dja, since he was given the job in June, with some lawmakers refusing to work with him.