GUINEA PRESIDENT SACKS CABINET

BISSAU: President José Mario Vaz Guinea-Bissau returned his entire government Friday, demanding that the ruling party to choose a new cabinet to lead the West African country of its political crisis.
Departments have been placed under the control of security forces, witnesses and security sources, while the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) was meeting to decide how to respond.
In a message addressed to the nation on radio and national television, Vaz said the ball was in the camp of the PAIGC.
"I made a decision that makes political parties aware of their responsibilities by giving them the chance to prove they attach more importance to the nation and the people on their personal interests or group or party" Vaz said.
"It is for the party that won a majority in parliamentary elections to propose a government that can earn the trust of the parliamentary majority."
PAIGC leader Domingo Simões Pereira, who Vaz sacked as prime minister last year, triggering the ongoing political crisis, urged Vaz to dissolve parliament and set new elections maintenance.
But Vaz said that the elections "are not an appropriate means of solving problems with discipline, cohesion and internal unity in political parties."
Guinea-Bissau has been gripped by political crisis since August 2015, when Vaz Pereira dismissed as prime minister, a move rejected by the PAIGC.
Both sides say the two men disagreed on how to run the country, especially on how to fight against corruption.
The PAIGC supported replacing Pereira as Prime Minister, Carlos Correia, who is temporarily appeared to resolve the conflict, but in December, 15 rebel lawmakers refused to support the policies of Correia, depriving it of a parliamentary majority.
Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony of about 1.6 million people, suffered multiple military coups since independence in 1974 and the army continues to play a heavy role