Ansumane Mané

Brigadier General Ansumane Mané ( 1940 – 30 November 2000) was a Bissau-Guinean military officer who led a 1998 uprising against the government of President João Bernardo Vieira, which caused a brief but bloody civil war.

Mané participated in the independence war against Portugal where he was Vieira's bodyguard. A close ally of Vieira, he backed him in the 1980 coup against Guinea Bissau President Luís Cabral. Mané was head of the armed forces of Guinea Bissau during Vieira's presidency before Vieira sacked him in 1998, accusing him of smuggling arms to Casamance separatist rebels in Senegal. Mané subsequently mobilized the troops formerly under his command and led a rebellion against Vieira.

Early life Mané was of the Mandinga ethnicity.

Military background Mané fought in the war of independence from Portugal alongside Vieira. Mané was Vieira's bodyguard. He backed Nino Vieira when they later seized power in a 1980 coup against Luís Cabral.

In early 1998, he was suspended as Chief of Staff of the armed forces for allegedly smuggling arms to Casamance separatist rebels in Senegal. According to Birgit Embaló, soldiers and war veterans in Guinea Bissau were upset at their pay, leading the military to self-finance itself through smuggling. resulting in the civil war. A peace agreement in November 1998 provided for a transitional national unity government and new elections.

After Vieira was deposed on 7 May 1999 in a renewed outbreak of fighting, Mané became temporary head of state (official title: Chairman of the Supreme Command of the Military Junta) until 14 May when Malam Bacai Sanhá, the president of the National People's Assembly, was installed as acting president.

Political growth The military junta headed by Mané remained in place during the transitional period leading to new elections; Mané cast himself as a guardian of democracy. A parliamentary election, along with the first round of a presidential election, was held on 28 November 1999. Two weeks prior to this, Mané's junta proposed an arrangement giving it power over the government for ten years, which would enable it to dissolve the government in case of a severe political crisis; however, political parties objected to this and the proposal was dropped. Although the junta backed the presidential candidacy of Malam Bacai Sanhá of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) in the second round of the election, held in January 2000, Kumba Ialá of the Party for Social Renewal (PRS) was victorious. Prior to the election, Ialá had already said that it would not be acceptable for the junta to remain in any capacity. The government subsequently said that Mané fled to Quinhamel in Biombo Region, in the west of the country.

General Mané was assassinated by forces loyal to the then president Kumba Ialá and General Batista Tagme Na Waie in Biombo Region a week later, on 30 November 2000, along with two others. General Mané did not put up a fight against the Balanta tribe troops. Although state television broadcast images of three bodies, these were deemed unrecognizable by the international media. The opposition PAIGC said that Mané was correct to oppose the promotions.

Among Mané's most prominent allies was Naval Chief of Staff Mohamed Lamine Sanha who was also assassinated a few years later.