Former Guinea-Bissau prime minister Aristide Gomes, who has been holed up in United Nations premises in the capital Bissau for 11 months, left the country on Friday. Gomes, who left office in early 2020, boarded a special UN-chartered flight in the afternoon without making any comments. The flight was headed for Dakar, the capital of neighbouring Senegal, according to an airport source. Gomes, a leading member of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), took refuge in the local offices of the United Nations in March 2020 after President Umaro Sissoco Embalo took office following an election victory contested by PAIGC. Citing fears for his safety, Gomes sought international help to allow him to leave the former Portuguese colony in West Africa. On Thursday the foreign ministry confirmed in a statement that an agreement had been reached to allow Gomes to go abroad for medical reasons. This came after the prosecutor general had given the green light for his departure, despite an investigation into embezzlement of public funds which centred around Gomes. Fellow former prime minister and PAIGC member Domingos Simoes Pereira went into exile in Portugal in May. aye/siu/pvh/har