Ab-Titchaz
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- Jan 30, 2008
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Guinea-Bissau candidate shot dead
Armed men have killed a minister and candidate in Guinea-Bissau's presidential elections. Baciro Dabo was said to be asleep next to his wife when men in uniform burst into his house at 0400 local time (and GMT) and shot him several times.
The 28 June election was called after President Joao Bernardo Vieira was killed by soldiers in March.
Guinea-Bissau, a key transit point for trafficking cocaine to Europe, has been plagued by coups since independence.
Journalist Jean Gomis told the BBC's Network Africa programme that Mr Dabo, the minister of territorial administration, was a close ally of former President Vieira.
He says that high-ranking members of the military may have feared that Mr Dabo could prosecute those responsible for killing the president if he won the elections.
Mr Dabo was a senior member of the ruling PAIGC party but was contesting the election as an independent.
The AP news agency reports that he was one of 13 presidential candidates.
Mr Vieira was hacked to death with machetes on 2 March by soldiers who blamed him for a bomb which had killed the army chief of staff hours earlier.
No-one has been prosecuted over the killing.
BBC NEWS | Africa | Guinea-Bissau candidate shot dead
Armed men have killed a minister and candidate in Guinea-Bissau's presidential elections. Baciro Dabo was said to be asleep next to his wife when men in uniform burst into his house at 0400 local time (and GMT) and shot him several times.
The 28 June election was called after President Joao Bernardo Vieira was killed by soldiers in March.
Guinea-Bissau, a key transit point for trafficking cocaine to Europe, has been plagued by coups since independence.
Journalist Jean Gomis told the BBC's Network Africa programme that Mr Dabo, the minister of territorial administration, was a close ally of former President Vieira.
He says that high-ranking members of the military may have feared that Mr Dabo could prosecute those responsible for killing the president if he won the elections.
Mr Dabo was a senior member of the ruling PAIGC party but was contesting the election as an independent.
The AP news agency reports that he was one of 13 presidential candidates.
Mr Vieira was hacked to death with machetes on 2 March by soldiers who blamed him for a bomb which had killed the army chief of staff hours earlier.
No-one has been prosecuted over the killing.
BBC NEWS | Africa | Guinea-Bissau candidate shot dead