Guinea-Bissau's Interior Ministry said the tiny West African country foiled a "coup attempt" overnight.

In a communique released early Friday, the information services of the ministry said a group of personnel close to former president Joao Bernado Vieira attempted to launch a coup between Thursday night and Friday morning.

The communique accused both former minister of territorial administration Baciro Dabo and Helder Proenca, a former defense minister in Vieira's administration, of part of the plot, saying both men were killed in an action against the coup attempt.

Baciro Dabo, 50, was shot dead at around 4 a.m. Friday at his residence in the capital city Bissau by "men in uniform" and "in the same way former president Nino Vieira" was murdered, according to state radio.

Dabo, a veteran of the ruling Independence of Guinea- Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC), resigned last month to run as an independent candidate ahead of the June 28 presidential elections. The election campaign is to start on Saturday.

Proenca, a deputy of the National Assembly (parliament), was accused of heading the coup attempt.

The twin killings came when Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior was away on a visit to Portugal.

The communique also named several other officials loyal to Vieira in the attempted coup, including former ministers Sandji Fati and Joao Monteiro, deputies Conduto de Pina and Roberto Cacheu, presidential campaign director Malam Bacai Sanha, as well as Marciano Silva Barbeiro and Daniel Gomes.

The group was said to have a plan to kill the prime minister and army chief of staff Zamora Induta, before creating a "high command of republican forces."

The Interior Ministry services said they had audio and video materials in possession to verify the information they had released.

The latest killings were reported only months after the top-level assassinations in the culmination of instability since last year.

Soldiers killed President Vieira on March 2 in a revenge attack hours after an explosion killed his military chief of staff Gen. Batista Tagme Na Wai, who had accused the presidential guard of attempting to assassinate him weeks before.

Analysts said President Vieira from the minority Papel ethnic group had tense relationship with the army dominated by officers from the majority Balanta ethnic group, which includes Na Wai who had previously joined a military coup against the country's longest serving president.

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, a power broker in conflicts of neighboring Guinea-Bissau, warned after the March 2 bloodshed that the military factions might move to an ethnic war if they fail to reconcile themselves.

The assassinations in March prompted a mission of the Economic Community of West African States in Guinea-Bissau to ensure the restoration of constitutional order.

Parliament Speaker Raimundo Pereira took oath on March 3 as the country's interim president. Under the Constitution, Pereira serves as interim head of state until a new leader is elected. The constitution requires that elections be held within two months.

Guinea-Bissau's political parties in April agreed to postpone the vote to June 28.

A total of 13 candidates were registered to run for president before the latest killings.

Guinea-Bissau has long suffered coups and coup attempts since its independence from Portugal. The country of 1.5 million population is among the poorest in the world, being ranked the 175th out of 177 nations in the U.N. Development Program's Human Development Index.

With a jagged Atlantic coastline, the country is being used by traffickers as a major hub for the flow of cocaine from Latin America to Europe.

In November, Guinea-Bissau held a legislative election, in which President Vieira-backed PAIGC won a landslide victory to maintain its traditionally dominant position. The vote was then widely seen as a hope to bring the country out of instability and the danger of becoming a lawless "Narco-state".

Source: Xinhua