BISSAU (Reuters) - Guinea-Bissau's National Assembly speaker Raimundo Pereira will take oath as interim head of state Tuesday afternoon after the President Joao Bernardo Vieira was killed Monday, a parliamentary communique said.
Vieira was killed in his home early Monday in an apparent revenge attack for the death of a key rival, armed forces chief General Batista Tagme Na Wai, throwing the tiny and unstable West African state into confusion.
In the event of a president dying in office, the speaker of parliament becomes head of state for a fixed period until elections can be held, under a constitution the armed forces have pledged to respect despite fears of a coup.
(Reporting by Alberto Dabo; editing by Alistair Thomson)
