The Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union decided on Thursday to strengthen the bloc's sanctions against Guinea-Bissau's military junta by adding fifteen more individuals to a visa ban and asset freeze list, and urged the junta to return the West African country to constitutional order.
"The EU has imposed sanctions on the members of the military junta as they threaten security and stability in Guinea-Bissau. We continue to demand that constitutional order be immediately restored," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement.
The fifteen individuals added to EU's sanctions list on Thursday will not be identified until Friday, when the sanctions will come into effect with their publication in the EU's official journal.
The bloc said in a statement that EU's development aid to Guinea-Bissau had been suspended since the coup and the subsequent appointment of its main instigators as chief of staff of defense and navy chief.
"However, humanitarian aid and direct support to the population have not been affected by this freeze," the statement added.
Earlier in the month, EU had imposed sanctions on five members of the Guinea-Bissau military junta, including coup leader General Antonio Injai as well as the heads of the army, navy, a deputy army chief of staff and the junta's spokesman.
The Army seized power in Guinea-Bissau on April 12, arresting interim President Raimundo Pereira as well as Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior, dissolving the parliament and establishing a National Transitional Council.
The coup, which came during elections in which Gomes was widely expected to be re-elected, was apparently prompted by Gomes plans to reduce the size of the Army.
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