Prez of Guinea-Bissau names new PM, triggering protests

Two weeks after sacking his entire government, the president of Guinea-Bissau named Baciro Dja as the west African country's new prime minister, in a move that triggered immediate protests from the ruling party.
Dja's appointment, announced by presidential decree yesterday, was swiftly condemned by the ruling African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), whose supporters set fire to tyres near the presidential palace, an AFP reporter saw.
"We will not accept a prime minister chosen by the president," said ex-premier Carlos Correia, who along with a number of former cabinet ministers gathered at the gates of the palace late yesterday where anti-riot police were deployed to provide additional security.

Guinea Bissau's crisis erupted in August when President Jose Mario Vaz fired prime minister Domingos Simoes Pereira of the PAIGC, putting the president on a collision course with the party he himself belongs to.
Both factions say the two men had disagreed over how to run the country, especially on how to tackle corruption.
Pereira was replaced as premier by party veteran Correia but the political turmoil flared up again in December when rebel MPs cost Correia his parliamentary majority.

Vaz then dissolved the government on May 12, demanding that the ruling party piece together a new cabinet able to pull the country out of crisis.

Dja was already named prime minister once before, in August 2015, but was forced to resign within weeks after his appointment was declared unconstitutional.
Alarmed by the ongoing political unrest, the UN Security Council earlier this month called for dialogue in Guinea-Bissau and urged the military not to intervene.
Guinea-Bissau has suffered multiple military coups since independence in 1974 and the army continues to play a heavy role in politics.
The chronic volatility has fanned poverty in this country of 1.6 million, which has few resources other than cashew nuts and fish and has attracted the attention of South American drug cartels who have turned it into a cocaine-trafficking hub.