The Uplifting Africa Program

The Uplifting Africa Program

 9/21/2021

Coup d’état in Guinea, Will Democracy survive?

    Military Forces gain support of the people in Guinea. Photo Credit: The Guardian

              Daniel Emblidge
              The Uplifting Africa Program
              www.upliftingafrica.org

              In association with: The   African Business Coalition

                                                        (DailySabah.com)

Captured former President Alpha Condé Photo Credit: AF

       The Republic of Guinea, a mineral rich but fiscally poor country in Western Africa
experienced a coup d’état on September 5, 2021, when President Alpha Condé was taken into
custody by special forces Lieutenant Col. Mamaday Doumbouya. Guinea is not a stranger to coups,
as President Condé, Guinea’s first democratically elected leader, gained power shortly after a coup
d’état which ended strongman Lansana Conté’s 24-year rule. Regionally, West Africa has seen
three coups within the last year. Junta leader Col. Doumbouya announced on state television that
Guinea’s constitution, government, and all of its institutions were dissolved and pledged to install a
unified transitional government. Doumbouya provided no timeline for the transition. Col.
Doumbouya cited “endemic corruption” and the “trampling on citizens’ rights” for inciting the
coup. He ordered the closure of land and air borders, a nightly curfew, and put ministers and other
high-level government officials on a no-fly list. Despite the stringent executive orders to limit the
movement of peoples, the curfew does not apply to the mining community and seaports remain
open for the export of Guinea’s national resources.

International Community Response
       The United States (US), European Union (EU), United Nations (UN), Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS), African Union (AU), and surprisingly, China have
condemned the coup, demanding the safe release of President Condé and requesting a swift
transition back to democratic civilian rule. ECOWAS has a narrow array of options at its disposal to
leverage against the newly asserted government of Guinea. Economic sanctions would be difficult
to employ because Guinea has not adopted the regional currency adopted by 14 other regional
countries – the West African Franc (CFA). On Wednesday September 8, 2021, three days after the
coup, ECOWAS leaders convened in an extraordinary meeting and voted to suspend Guinea’s
membership as well as to send a high-level mission comprised of negotiators to Guinea in the
coming days. Burkina Faso’s foreign minister Alpha Barry said the ECOWAS would re-examine its
position after the ECOWAS mission concluded its inquiry. The AU tweeted on Friday, September
10, 2021, that it had suspended Guinea from AU activities and decision-making bodies. China’s
consensus with the international community is unique because it violates their foreign policy’s core
tenet – nonintervention in other nation’s internal affairs. According to Bloomberg, 55% of China’s
bauxite imports are from Guinea, which allows China to be the largest exporter of aluminum.
Because of China’s investments in Guinea’s bauxite and iron extracting industries, it is not likely
that China will level any sanctions on Guinea, as Lt. Col. Doumbouya has tried to prevent any
hindrance to the mining sector.
       Despite international disapproval, the domestic response to the coup appears to be positive.
Videos have surfaced showing jubilant parades throughout the streets of Conakry, Guinea’s capital,
and the coup is also welcomed by Condé’s long-standing opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo -
Malinké.
       Guinea has experienced three military coups since independence with all the coup leaders
pledging to clean up corruption, end economic mismanagement and ethnic domination and restore
democracy. Each has failed as the new military leader, Lt. Col. Doumbouya, has pledged to rewrite
the constitution. Will this be a step forward or backward for democracy? The international
community and the African Union are more concerned that the military junta/coup model for ruling
African nations is a trend that is returning. How to address this issue is an age old problem in Africa
and other nations around the world.

President Alpha Condé in France before the Coup, Photo Credit UP

President Condé’s Tenure & Bauxite
          Alpha Condé was first elected president in 2010 to a five-year term, in a belligerent political
environment fractured along ethnic lines. The two largest ethnicities in Guinea, then and today, are
Peuls and Malinkés. They have a long and turbulent history dating back centuries ago, thought to be
ignited by land disputes. Since the end of colonialism in 1958, ethnic tensions only deepened
between the two groups. The first President in post-colonial Guinea was Ahmed Sekou Touré, who
slowly promoted Malinkés to top government positions and who the military is mainly composed
of. On October 11, 2015, President elect Alpha Condé – a Malinké - won his second term in a
contentious presidential race littered with complaints of fraud and spates of violence. Later that
month, a judicial panel confirmed that President Condé did in fact win the presidential election with
58% of the vote. In March of 2020, Condé circumvented Guinea’s two-term constitution limit by
passing a referendum that changed Guinea’s two five-year terms into two six-year terms, and
voiding Condé’s previous two terms – giving the 83-year-old president potentially 12 more years in
office.
          Condé started as a glimmer of hope for democracy in Guinea, blaringly opposing Guinean
dictators and becoming the first free, democratically elected president in 2010. He ran on the
promise to turn the penurious, corrupt and mineral-rich country into a stable democracy. With an

auspicious start, President Condé turned to United Kingdom’s then Prime Minister Tony Blair,
billionaire George Soros, and the US’s then President Barack Obama for aid and advice. Growing
impatient for Western aid President Condé turned to resource hungry China in 2011 to negotiate
various bauxite development projects – which included bauxite mines, aluminum refineries, deep-
water ports and a coal fried power plant. These talks morphed into profitable foreign direct
investment by China in Guinea – first a $20 billion-dollar loan in 2014 and then another $20 billion-
dollar loan in 2020. Throughout the cultivation and development of the Guinea-China relationship,
the majority of Guineans were in abject poverty and bauxite mining destroyed rural farmlands and
polluted vital water sources. At the same time Condé lost sight of his early democratic dreams for
Guinea, he further tarnished his tenure by his crackdown on political opposition by inflaming ethnic
tensions, responding poorly to an Ebola outbreak, and enacting an unconstitutional referendum to
permit Condé’s third term.

           Col. Doumbouya gives France 24 an exclusive interview about the Coup draped in Guinea’s Flag

       Col. Doumbouya released roughly 80 political prisoners, on Tuesday September 7, 2021,
who were jailed for protesting against the constitutional amendment that would allow Condé’s third
term. Col. Doumbouya then held a meeting with Guinea’s top military officials to unite the

country’s armed forces. Col. Doumbouya stated on state television that “[w]e are no longer going to
entrust politics to one man, we are going to entrust politics to the people.”

News Sources:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/09/08/china-guinea-interference-relations-alpha-conde-xi-
jinping/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-06/guinea-coup-poses-supply-chain-risks-
for-china-s-aluminum-sector

https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/03/11/complaint-filed-against-bauxite-mining-company-
guinea#
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/west-african-leaders-due-guinea-post-coup-calm-
pervades-conakry-2021-09-09/

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/05/world/africa/guinea-coup.html

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/06/1034587283/guineas-military-declared-coup-future-uncertain

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/8/west-african-bloc-suspends-guineas-membership-
following-coup

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/02/world/africa/guinea-president-alpha-conde-re-election-
confirmed.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/world/africa/08guinea.html

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-guinea-election-idUSKBN21E39O

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-54657359.amp
https://www.dw.com/en/african-union-suspends-guinea-after-military-coup/a-59144311
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-guinea-conflict-ethnic/inisight-guinea-ethnic-divide-defies-
west-africas-mandela-idUSBRE89M0Z820121023