From 9 News World.

Guinea-Bissau’s interior minister has announced his resignation after the west African country allowed a group of Syrians to board a flight to Portugal with allegedly false passports.

Portuguese flag-carrier TAP suspended flights between the two countries last week when one of its aircraft from Bissau arrived in Lisbon with the group of 74 refugees.

“I took the decision to discharge my duties as interior minister so as not to hinder ongoing investigations,” Suca Ntchama told a news conference.

Ntchama, a colonel in the air force, is believed to have facilitated the boarding of the Syrians to Lisbon, according to a source familiar with the case.

He is the second senior government official to lose his job over the affair, after Foreign Minister Fernando Delfim da Silva announced last week he was quitting in protest against the implication of government officials and police in wrongdoing.

Seven police officers have since been suspended and a judge-led inquiry has been set up.

The incident sparked a diplomatic row between Bissau and its former colonial power, from which it gained independence in 1974 after a war lasting more than 10 years.

Read more at 9 News World.