The United States ambassador to Guinea-Bissau is the official representative of the president of the United States to the head of state of Guinea-Bissau. The U.S. ambassador to Senegal is concurrently commissioned to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau.
Until 1974, Guinea-Bissau had been a colony of the Portuguese Empire as Portuguese Guinea. After a period of revolutionary warfare, Guinea-Bissau unilaterally declared its independence on September 24, 1973. Following the April 1974 Carnation Revolution in Portugal, it granted independence to Guinea-Bissau on September 10, 1974. The United States recognized the Republic of Guinea-Bissau on the same day. The U.S. Embassy Bissau was established on June 30, 1976, with Dean Curran as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim.
The first three ambassadors to Guinea-Bissau were concurrently commissioned to Cape Verde while resident in Bissau. From 1983 until 1998, U.S. ambassadors were solely commissioned to Guinea-Bissau. In 1998 the U.S. embassy in Bissau was closed, and there has been no U.S. embassy in Bissau since then. Since 2002, the U.S. ambassador to Senegal has also been commissioned as the ambassador to Guinea-Bissau, while resident in Dakar.
Ambassadors and chiefs of mission +NameTitleAppointedPresented credentialsTerminated missionMelissa F. WellsAlso accredited to Cape Verde; resident at Bissau. - Career FSOAmbassador Extraordinary and PlenipotentiarySeptember 16, 1976November 29, 1976March 29, 1977Edward Marks - Career FSOSeptember 16, 1977October 31, 1977July 11, 1980Peter Jon de Vos - Career FSOAugust 27, 1980September 22, 1980March 30, 1983Wesley Egan - Career FSOMarch 18, 1983May 12, 1983January 7, 1985Barbara C. MaslakChargé d'Affaires ad interimJanuary 1985UnknownAugust 1986John Dale Blacken - Career FSOAmbassador Extraordinary and PlenipotentiaryJune 16, 1986August 27, 1986September 29, 1989William Ludwig Jacobsen - Career FSOOctober 10, 1989November 13, 1989August 25, 1992Roger A. McGuire - Career FSOJune 15, 1992October 14, 1992August 28, 1995Peggy Blackford - Career FSOOctober 3, 1995November 4, 1995June 14, 1998Embassy suspended operations from 1998 to 2002.Richard Allan RothAlso accredited to Senegal; resident at Dakar. - Career FSOAmbassador Extraordinary and PlenipotentiaryNovember 15, 2002February 13, 2004Left Dakar, August 4, 2005Janice L. Jacobs - Career FSOFebruary 21, 2006May 9, 2006Left Dakar, July 15, 2007Marcia Bernicat - Career FSOJune 16, 2008November 6, 2008July 15, 2011Robert T. YamateChargé d'Affaires ad interimJuly 15, 2011UnknownAugust 2011Lewis A. Lukens – Career FSOAmbassador Extraordinary and PlenipotentiaryJuly 11, 2011October 19, 2011June 4, 2014James P. Zumwalt – Career FSOFebruary 3, 2015March 10, 2015January 19, 2017Tulinabo S. Mushingi – Career FSOMay 19, 2017August 4, 2017February 1, 2022Michael A. Raynor – Career FSODecember 18, 2021April 20, 2022January 15, 2026
Notes
See also Guinea-Bissau – United States relations Foreign relations of Guinea-Bissau Ambassadors of the United States
References United States Department of State: Background notes on Guinea-Bissau
External links United States Department of State: Chiefs of Mission for Guinea-Bissau United States Department of State: Guinea-Bissau United States Virtual Consulate in Guinea-Bissau