GuineaBissau Military - 2023

Military and security forces

People's Revolutionary Armed Force (FARP): Army, Navy, Air Force; Ministry of Internal Administration: Guard Nacional (a gendarmerie force), Public Order Police, Border Police, Rapid Intervention Police, Maritime Police (2022)

note: the Public Order Police is responsible for maintaining law and order, while the Judicial Police, under the Ministry of Justice, has primary responsibility for investigating drug trafficking, terrorism, and other transnational crimes

Military expenditures

1.6% of GDP (2022 est.)

1.8% of GDP (2021 est.)

1.7% of GDP (2020 est.)

1.9% of GDP (2019 est.)

1.7% of GDP (2018 est.)

Military and security service personnel strengths

approximately 4,000 total active troops, including a few hundred air and naval personnel (2022)

Military equipment inventories and acquisitions

the FARP is armed mostly with Soviet-era equipment, much of which is reportedly unserviceable (2023)

Military service age and obligation

18-25 years of age for selective compulsory military service for men and women (Air Force service is voluntary); 16 years of age or younger, with parental consent, for voluntary service (2023)

Military - note

the FARP is focused on external security, but also has some internal security duties, and it has been influential in the country’s politics since independence was gained in 1974, having staged at least nine coups as well as several mutinies; FARP members were suspected of coup plotting as recently as 2021, and the military has been accused of involvement in narcotics trafficking; since the 2000s, the FARP has undergone various attempts at defense and security sector reforms with limited success under the auspices of the African Union, the EU, the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS), and the UN 

from 2012-2020, ECOWAS deployed a security force to Guinea-Bissau to manage the post-coup transition, including protecting key political figures and public buildings, restoring civil institutions, and re-establishing the rule of law; at the height of the deployment, the force, known as the ECOWAS Mission in Guinea-Bissau (ECOMIB), deployed nearly 700 military and police personnel from Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Senegal (2023)