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LISA MULLINS: I'm Lisa Mullins, and this is The World. The West African nation of Guinea Bissau today appealed for international aid. The country is in the middle of a crisis. It's a crisis rooted in the rivalry between the two most powerful men in Guinea-Bissau – both of whom are now dead. The World's Emma Lydersen has the details.

EMMA LYDERSEN: The feud between President Joao Bernardo Vieira and his army chief-of-staff General Batiste Tagme Na Waie was no secret. For decades, the two had traded insults and accusations. Daniel Balint-Kurti is with the London-based think tank Chatham House.

DANIEL BALINT-KURTI: Na Waie believed that Vieira was trying to exclude his ethnic group, the Balanta, the biggest ethnic group from power. And this caused a lot of friction between the two, and from there, things became increasingly bitter. And within the last year each of them accused the other of trying to assassinate them.

LYDERSEN: This week, both men were proven right. On Sunday, General Tagme Na Waie was killed in a bomb attack on the military headquarters in the capital Bissau. Hours later, the President was dead, too. Brahima Kamara is a local journalist in Bissau. Kamara says the soldiers who killed President Vieira were out for revenge.

KAMARA: After the killing of the army chief of staff, Tagme Na Waie, soldiers went to President Vieira's house. Before they entered the President's house, they started using rockets and weapons. And when they entered, they immediately caught President Vieira in his house. They asked him what he knew of the army chief of staff's death. And according to military sources, Vieira confirmed. He said, “I am the one who killed the army chief of staff.” And then they shot Mr. Vieira. And then somebody took a knife and stabbed him.

LYDERSEN: President Vieira loomed large in Guinea Bissau since the 1970s when he fought against former colonial master Portugal. He seized power outright in a coup in 1980, and
managed to hold on to it for almost 20 years. In 1999, he was ousted, and Guinea Bissau was plunged into a bitter civil war. But within a few years, Vieira was back on top – this time as elected leader. At his inauguration in 2005, Vieira pledged to promote peace and reconciliation. But the President's last years in power were anything but tranquil. Now, President Vieira leaves behind a country labeled by the United Nations as Africa's “first narco state” – a top transit point for cocaine smuggled from Latin America to Europe. Once Vieira and Na Waie are buried, and with them their rivalry, Guinea Bissau's future leaders will have that to contend with. For The World, I'm Emma Lydersen.

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