Guinea coup leader, Lt.-Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, announced Monday that he will form a government of national unity that will lead the country’s transition period.
Doumbouya-led soldiers overthrew President Alpha Conde on Sunday after heavy gunfire at the Presidential Palace in Conakry, the country’s capital.
Doumbouya, who heads the army’s special forces before the coup, did not say when the new government would be in place.
“A consultation will be launched to set down the broad parameters of the transition, and then a government of national union will be established to steer the transition,” he said in a statement on Monday.
Shortly after takingover, Doumbouya barred ministers from leaving the country and ordered high-ranking government officials to submit their official vehicles and travel documents.
Condé was re-elected for a controversial third term in office amid violent protests in October 2020.
Doumbouya had accused Condé’s administration of mismanaging the reousirce of Guinea, a country of 13 million people, and one of the world’s poorest countries despite boasting significant mineral resources, has for long being politicaly unstable.
Despite international condemnation of the coup, there were celebrations among the people in many neighbourhoods in the capital, and a noticeable absence of military patrols on the streets.
“There came a time when Guineans were asking for change, most Guineans asked for change. So this is exactly what has happened,” a local journalist, Youssouf
Bah, was reported to have said.
Conde, a former opposition leader, was at one point imprisoned and sentenced to death. He became Guinea’s first democratically elected leader in 2010, winning re-election in 2015.
He survived an assassination attempt in 2011.
However in recent years, he has been accused of drifting into authoritarianism.
