THE PRESIDENT DIES GUINEA-BISSAU

President of Guinea-Bissau died on Monday at a hospital in Paris, France, the presidency announced in a statement. "With grief and consternation, the Guinean President announces to the international community and the death of President Malam Bacai Sanha hospital this morning in Val-de-Grâce in Paris."

Read also: Brazil regrets the death of President of Guinea-Bissau

Malam Bacai Sanha, 64, was elected President of Guinea-Bissau in 2009, the substitução Joao Bernardo Vieira, murdered in 2008 in a coup. The cause of death has not been clarified yet, but the president has undergone medical treatment in France and Senegal during his time in office.

In the national radio, a country's embassy official in Paris, Luis Mendes said Sanhá was hospitalized in France for "about a month," because of an unspecified illness.

According to the Constitution provides for Guinea-Bissau, the presidency is assumed by the holder of the National Assembly, Raimundo Pereira, a lawyer for 55 years. Besides organizing the funeral Sanhá, Pereira must call elections within a period of 90 days.

Since independence from Portugal in 1974, the nation has suffered strokes and became one of the main cocaine trafficking routes to Europe. About two months ago, the army said a senior authority tried unsuccessfully to seize power while Sanha was sick.

Sanhá won the presidential election of 2009, which represented a peaceful transition of power, which is rare in the history of Guinea-Bissau. He is best known for having been hospitalized in other countries than for his accomplishments as president. His aides always tell people that their frequent hospitalizations were due to routine examinations.

In August 2009, he spent three weeks in hospital in Dakar, in Senegal, where the medical establishment is better than in Guinea-Bissau. A veteran observer close to the entourage of the president described the disease as an "advanced diabetes" combined with a problem in hemoglobin.

Sanhá began his political career as a youth leader of the African Party for Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, PAIGC - the body that fought for independence from Portugal in 1974.

He became a member of the executive committee of the party, and was governor of a province. In 2009, after the death of Vieira, who was shot and killed inside his home, Sanhá won the elections, organized by the acting head of state, Raimundo Pereira.

Photo: AP

25/08/2010 in photo, Malam Bacai Sanha greets then-Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brasilia

The circumstances of the death of Vieira never been fully clarified, but many speculate that his murder was related to problems with drug trafficking.

Carlos Vamain, a political analyst and former justice minister, called the presidency Sanhá as difficult and complex. "Hard in the context of drug trafficking and also the socio-economic problems of the country," said Vamain. "His presidency did not bring the results that people expect.
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