Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoko Embalo today denied the country had removed the flag from ships blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, saying it was “fake news”.
The Freedom Flotilla coalition accused Guinea-Bissau of removing the flag from two of the organization’s ships, succumbing to Israeli pressure to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching its destination.
“This is not true, this is fake news, there have never been ships in Guinea-Bissau,” the president said on the sidelines of a visit to a new medicine warehouse in Bissau.
Responding to Lusa’s accusations from the humanitarian organization, the head of state said he was not aware of the flag issue being raised and refused to give 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 of mine whom I met many years ago. That’s who I talked to, but about the war in the Gaza Strip. Streep,” he emphasized.
“Just yesterday I talked to him, we talked a lot, which is what I do with several presidents,” he added.
The President of Guinea-Bissau assured that he had never spoken with his Israeli counterpart “about the flags of ships,” emphasizing that this is an issue that “the President of the Republic is not involved in.”
“What I can confirm is that people sometimes… there is ‘fake news’, this is ‘fake news.’ [notícia falsa]”, he repeated.
The non-governmental organization (NGO) Freedom Flotilla said it intends to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, namely 5,550 tons of goods, on ships under the flag of several countries, which will also carry international humanitarian observers.