Army headquarters said Yala's government had been dissolved because of its inability to address the most pressing problems facing the impoverished west African state.

Yala's ouster is the latest episode in a saga of political and constitutional instability in the former Portugese colony, spanning three decades.

In 1998, former army chief-of-staff Ansumane Mane launched an 11-month army mutiny which ended in the ouster of then president Joao Bernardo Vieira.

GEOGRAPHY: Guinea-Bissau is a west African country on the Atlantic ocean, bordering Senegal to the north and Guinea to the east and south. The territory includes an archipelago of around two dozen islands.

AREA: 36,100 square kilometers (14,440 square miles).

POPULATION: 1.2 million.

CAPITAL: Bissau.

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: Portuguese.

RELIGION: 53 percent animist, 38 percent Muslims with a small Christian minority.

RECENT HISTORY: A Portuguese colony from the 15th century onwards, the country declared unilateral independence in 1973 after a liberation war. The independent Republic of Guinea-Bissau was officially proclaimed in 1974. The army deposed the first president, Luis Cabral, in 1980. Joao Bernardo Vieira took over as head of state and parliament formally elected him to the post in 1984. Once the country became a multi-party democracy in 1991, Vieira and his African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verdewent on to win the 1994 parliamentary election, the first free poll in the country's history. In June 1998 General Ansumane Mane and his junta led an army mutiny which eventually toppled Vieira in May 1999. A military junta took over until the November 2000 and January 2001 elections, which brought Kumba Yala to power. In the meantime Ansumane Mane had attempted another coup in November 2000 but was killed by loyalist forces.

POLITICAL SITUATION: In November 2002 Yala dissolved parliament and called an early election in response to worsening economic conditions. Mario Pires became prime minister and his government was dominated by the ruling Social Renovation Party (PRS). The parliamentary election was adjourned on several occasions and was finally scheduled for October 12.

ECONOMY: GDP was 160 dollars (141.5 euros) per head in 2001 (World Bank) and external debt totaled 668 million dollars in 2001 (World Bank). The economy is largely (90 percent) agricultural and industry is weak. Cashew nuts provide 90 percent of export receipts (12 percent of world production). Other resources include fisheries, peanuts and timber. Guinea-Bissau ranks as one of the world's poorest countries and institutional instability has only added to its difficult social and economic conditions. Maternal mortality is 910 per 10,000 (World Bank, 1995), infant mortality 130 per 1,000 (World Bank, 2001) and life expectation is 40 years. Infrastructure, including health and education, is in a state of decay. About 80 percent of the population live on less than one dollar a day.

CURRENCY: The CFA franc.

DEFENCE: The country has a total 25,000 troops and veterans. A Demobilisation and Social Reintegration Project (PRDI) launched in 2000 should reduce troops in active service to 5,000.

WAR.WIRE