In my case it was the existence of Unmerged paths that was causing

error: Merging is not possible because you have unmerged files.

Try:

git status

if it says

You have unmerged paths.

do as suggested: either resolve conflicts and then commit or abort the merge entirely with

git merge --abort

You might also see files listed under Unmerged paths, which you can resolve by doing

git rm <file>

It might be the Unmerged paths that cause

error: Merging is not possible because you have unmerged files.

If so, try:

git status

if it says

You have unmerged paths.

do as suggested: either resolve conflicts and then commit or abort the merge entirely with

git merge --abort

You might also see files listed under Unmerged paths, which you can resolve by doing

git rm <file>