Guinea-Bissau's former Prime Minister Francisco Jose Fadul is recovering in hospital after being beaten by people dressed as soldiers. Mr Fadul said 15 armed men in uniform had raided his house, assaulting him and his wife and stealing computers, phones and even their wedding rings. The beating came after he had urged the government to hold the military to account for alleged corruption.

Guinea-Bissau cannot afford to hold elections following the assassination of its president earlier this month, Cape Verde's prime minister says. Cape Verde is helping co-ordinate efforts to restore order in its fellow former Portuguese colony. According to the constitution, polls should be held within 60 days.

The programme drawn up by Guinea Bissau's Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior has been approved by the country's parliament. The approval, on Wednesday, paves the way for the government to implement the programme.

Following the assassinations on 1 March of Guinea-Bissau’s President João ‘Nino’ Vieira and military chief General Batista Tagmé Na Wai, the Goree Institute’s Waly Ndiaye analyses some of the underlying causes of the country’s troubled history since its independence in 1974, and asks whether the deaths of these two men – whose personal rivalry helped tear apart political life – have created an opportunity to build Guinea-Bissau into a modern state.

cc In an interview with Pambazuka News, CODESRIA researcher Carlos Cardoso analyses events leading up to the assassinations of both Guinea-Bissau’s military chief General Tagme Na Wai and President Nino Vieira within hours of each other on 1 March, and charts out his thoughts on what lies ahead for the country.

Guinea Bissau's Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior said on Thursday that his government would pursue dialogue with the military and “display a conciliatory overture” to restore peace and stability in the country in the wake of the assassinations of the armed forces chief of staff General Batista Tagm Na Wai and President Bernardo Joao Vieira.

This latest policy briefing from the International Crisis Group, argues that the West African country’s new prime minister, Carlos Gomes Junior, has an opportunity to carry out the administrative and political measures needed to strengthen the state, stabilise the economy and fight drug trafficking. But he will need to base his approach on political dialogue with President Nino Vieira, the army and rivals within his own party.

The United Nations Security Council has underscored the need for continued international support for Guinea-Bissau, while voicing their concern over security in the West African country which faced an unsuccessful coup attempt last month by elements of the military. Renegade military elements launched an armed attack on the residence of President João Bernardo Vieira in the capital, Bissau, on 23 November.

The Security Council has strongly condemned the attempted coup d’état in Guinea-Bissau over the weekend and urged all political groups in the fragile and impoverished West African country to resolve their disputes peacefully. Dissident elements of the military launched an armed attack on the residence of President João Bernardo Vieira in the capital, Bissau, early on Sunday morning, using machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. But they were unsuccessful and Mr. Vieira survived the attack.

The Security Council has welcomed last weekend’s legislative elections in Guinea-Bissau and called on the political parties in the troubled West African country to respect the results. Last Sunday’s polls were held on schedule “in an orderly and peaceful manner,” and both the Government and the people deserve commendation for their efforts, the Council said in a press statement read out by Ambassador Jorge Urbina of Costa Rica, which holds the presidency of the 15-member panel this month.

In the run-up to the November 16 legislative elections in Guinea-Bissau, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), publishes today a mission report entitled Guinea-Bissau: A Detrimental Environment to the Work of Human Rights Defenders.

A cholera epidemic is spreading quickly in Guinea-Bissau, where campaigning for an upcoming election could put even more people at risk, United Nations agencies said on Friday. Some 12,225 people in the West African state have caught cholera so far this year and 201 have died, raising fears among aid workers that the water-borne disease could resurge on the devastating scale seen in 2005.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed concern over the volatile security and political atmosphere in Guinea-Bissau, where crucial elections are slated to take place next month, in his latest report to the Security Council on the West African country. Mr. Ban said that the period covered by the new report, from mid-July to September, was characterized by “deepening political malaise and the spectres of military tension and pressure.”

The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) continue to help authorities in Guinea-Bissau combat an outbreak of cholera that has claimed at least 133 lives since May and forced thousands of others to be hospitalized. WHO has sent an epidemiologist and UNICEF has deployed water and sanitation experts to assist in the response to the cholera epidemic, which can be a frequent occurrence in the poor West African nation.

Cholera has killed 122 people and new cases have been reported in the last three weeks alone in Guinea Bissau. The epidemic is uncontrollable in the capital Bissau and elsewhere, experts told IRIN. The hardest hit regions are Bijao Island 158 cases, Biombo 836, Quinara 216, Oio 215 and Bissau 4,500.

Gambian police have captured the head of Guinea-Bissau's navy, who had escaped house arrest and had fled his country by boat after he was accused of trying to stage a coup. Maria da Conceicao Nobre Cabral, Guinea-Bissau's foreign minister, flew to Gambia on Thursday, following the capture of Rear Admiral Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchute.

Rising food and fuel costs could trigger social conflict in Guinea-Bissau according to the latest report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), published last week. The warnings come just as Guinea-Bissau has been plunged into a political crisis with President Joao Vieira dissolving parliament and appointing a new prime minister on 5 August. A new government is expected to be formed in a matter of days.

Experts fear presidential elections scheduled for November may be destabilised following the withdrawal of the opposition African Party for the Independence of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) from the national unity government on 25 July.

Cholera which first broke out in Guinea Bissau in May in the southern region of Tombali has now broken out in the capital Bissau killing four people and infecting 214, according to Daniel Kertesz, representative of the World Health Organization (WHO).

This latest report from the International Crisis Group, analyses the national and international policies necessary to put an end to the country’s endless cycle of political crises. Despite 35 years of institutional incapacity, Guinea-Bissau has a chance for democratic reforms thanks to the signing of a Stability Pact by the three most important political parties in March 2007.