The President of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, today denied that the country had removed the flag from ships preventing the arrival of humanitarian aid to Gaza, stating that it was “fake news”.
The Freedom Flotilla coalition accused Guinea-Bissau of having removed the flag from two of the organization’s ships, giving in to pressure from Israel so that humanitarian aid does not reach its destination.
“This does not correspond to the truth, this is ‘fake news’, Guinea-Bissau never had ships”, said the President, on the sidelines of a visit to the new medicine warehouse in Bissau.
Questioned by Lusa about the humanitarian organization’s accusation, the head of state stated that he was not aware of the issue raised about the flags and refused to have given in to pressure from Israel.
“I don’t usually talk to the Prime Minister of Israel, I talk to the President of Israel, who is a friend, who I met many years ago. That’s who I’ve been talking to, but about the war in the Gaza Strip” , he stressed.
“Just yesterday I spoke to him, we communicated a lot, which is what I do with several presidents,” he added.
The President of Guinea-Bissau assured that he never spoke to his Israeli counterpart “about the flagging of ships”, stressing that it is a matter that “the President of the Republic does not deal with”.
“What I can reaffirm is that people sometimes… there is ‘fake news’, this is ‘fake news’ [notícia falsa]”, he reiterated.
The Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Freedom Flotilla said it intends to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza, specifically 5,550 tons of goods, on ships flying the flag of several countries, which will also carry international humanitarian observers.
Tags: Guinean fake news remove flag ships carrying aid Gaza Africa
