Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya Sworn in as Guinean President
Lieutenant Colonel Doumbouya celebrates the anniversary of Guinea's independence at a 2021 carnival (Creative Commons)
Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya was sworn in as Guinea’s new president on October 1 in Guinea’s new military transitional government after leading a coup that overthrew former Guinean President Alpha Condé at the beginning of September. Doumbouya became Africa’s second-youngest leader and promised to not contest future elections when the country would eventually transition to civilian rule.
The coup that overthrew Condé began September 5, when civilians awoke to the noise of heavy gunfire around the presidential palace. Within hours, pictures and videos had circulated across social media showing the military taking Condé prisoner. By mid-day, Doumbouya, the head of Guinea’s special forces, went on TV to confirm that, for the third time in Guinea’s history, the military had staged a coup.
The people of Guinea, traditionally distrustful of the military, celebrated across Guinea’s capital city Conakry—a sign of how disenchanted they had become with Condé’s rule. Condé, who was the first democratically elected president of Guinea, came into power in 2010 with hopes of fashioning himself as Guinea’s “Mandela.” After overseeing the corrupt management of Guinea’s natural resources, revising the constitution to allow himself to run for a third term, and presiding over unfree elections rife with state violence, Condé’s legacy no longer represented the hope of West African democracy but the clearest example of its failure.
The signs of political turmoil in Guinea had been apparent in the past few years. Afrobarometer’s 2019 survey found that just 29 percent of Guineans thought their democracy was working, only a third thought the country was moving in the right direction, and only a quarter approved of the government’s handling of corruption and the economy. Guinea’s election in October 2020, which gave Condé his third term, was widely scorned as unfree and spurred national protests; however, the international community (including the African Union and the U.S.), recognized Condé’s victory in hopes of ensuring stable access to Guinea’s mineral wealth.
Doumbouya has promised a “government of national unity,” the end of corruption and personal greed in governance, and elections to come. Political prisoners have been released by the military as a sign of goodwill. “We will no longer entrust politics to one man, we will entrust it to the people,” Dambouya announced on TV. However, no timetable has been set for democratic proceedings, and army officers have already been appointed as provincial governors.
The Economic Community of West African States has imposed a travel ban and frozen Guinea’s assets to encourage a return to democracy. The African Union has also suspended Guinea’s membership. Condé has been detained and is unable to leave the country, despite regional pressure on the military junta.
The coup in Guinea marks a continuation of the trends of democratic backsliding observed in many West African countries, including recent coups in Mali and Chad. As recently as 2008, similar promises of democracy from Guinea’s military were reneged on. If these examples offer any prescience, the joys of Guineans, freed from the abuses of Condé, may fade under the prospect of military rule. Guinean professor Amadou Sadjo Barry told the Continent that the country’s political system tends to persist “by recycling its authoritarian spirit.”