Soldiers loot government offices in coup-hit Bissau

SOLDIERS raided at least two government buildings in Guinea-Bissau’s capital on Thursday, officials said, stealing cash and supplies in a sign of growing desperation in the West African state since an April 12 coup.The shadowy self-styled Military Command, which dissolved the government and derailed a presidential election in the overnight coup, said days ago that it would delay the payment of public salaries.“A dozen armed men in uniform stormed the premises of the Traffic Administration at dawn today and took 8 million CFA francs,” Lucinda Barbosa Ahukarie, director of the administration, told reporters on Thursday.Soldiers earlier had looted the Agriculture Ministry, stealing supplies, including pesticides, according to a press release by the ministry.World organisations have condemned the coup as a setback for regional democracy, and West African bloc ECOWAS is preparing to deploy a 600-strong force to the country to help restore constitutional order, sources said.The former Portuguese colony has suffered several army uprisings since independence in 1974, but this latest has hobbled Western efforts to combat drugs cartels that use Guinea-Bissau as a stop-off point to Europe.Local radio on Thursday reported other cases of recent looting by soldiers, including the theft of cattle from herders in the country’s interior. The reports could not be independently confirmed.Life in the poor nation, where the average income is less than $2 a day, has grown more difficult since the coup.