IPNEWS: Deposed Guinean president Alpha Conde “returned to Conakry on Friday afternoon after medical treatment in the United Arab Emirates,” according to a statement by the transitional government read on state television.
“The former president will remain in Guinea as long as his health allows. His integrity and dignity will always be respected in accordance with his rank and status” the statement read.
A Guinean foreign affairs document indicates that it was the authorities in Conakry who asked for his return following the broadcast in March of a recording attributed to the former head of state from the Emirates. The recording spoke of the need for Mr. Conde’s party to get into battle in anticipation of a serious deterioration in Guinea.
For the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, these actions constitute “a threat to the peace and stability” of Guinea and violate the terms of a commitment by ECOWAS to guarantee the former president.
Meanwhile, a coalition that has fought Conde for months has now urged the ruling junta to immediately open the trial of the former head of state after his return from abroad.
This collective has orchestrated months of mobilization in 2019-2020 against a third term of Alpha Conde. The protest, which was brutally repressed several times, left dozens of civilians dead, but did not prevent the re-inauguration of Alpha Conde in December 2020.
The 84-year-old Alpha Conde left the country in mid-January for medical examinations. His party, the Ras emblement du Peuple de Guinée (RPG), said in a statement that it would continue “to work for his complete release” and would submit a request for a visit in the coming days.
At the head of the country for nearly 11 years, he was overthrown on September 5, 2021, by Colonel Doumbouya, who has since become President of the Republic.
It may be recalled in early January 2025, former Guinean President Alpha Conde left the country for medical treatment in the United Arab Emirates after spending more than four months in the custody of the military junta that overthrew him, witnesses said Monday.
No details were given on his diagnosis, though witnesses at the airport in Conakry, the capital, confirmed that the 83-year-old former president’s plane was en route to Abu Dhabi.
There was no immediate confirmation from the junta-led transitional government, though officials had announced earlier this month that Conde wasn’t in good health and would be traveling abroad soon for care.
Conde’s ouster in September came less than a year after he ran and won a third term in office despite widespread protests. The ex-president had backed a constitutional referendum bending the term limit rules in order to do so.
The regional bloc known as ECOWAS and other members of the international community have called for Conde’s immediate release ever since he was detained in the September coup that overthrew him after more than a decade in power.
But Guinea’s new military rulers vowed that Conde wouldn’t be allowed to leave the country and seek exile. West African regional leaders put travel bans into place after the junta failed to release him. The financial assets of junta leaders also were frozen.
Conde came to power in 2010 during the country’s first democratic elections since independence from France in 1958. At the time, there were hopes that his presidency would turn the page after decades of dictatorship and corrupt rule in Guinea, home to mineral riches including the world’s largest bauxite reserves.
However, Conde’s bid to extend his rule sparked violent demonstrations by those who said he had bent the rule on term limits to his benefit. He ultimately won another five-year term in October 2020 only to be ousted the following September.
Meanwhile, Guinea’s ruling junta has agreed to restore civilian rule in two years, after facing sanctions over its original plan for a three-year transfer of power, the West African bloc ECOWAS said Friday.
West African leaders had last month suspended Guinea from the bloc and imposed sanctions on a number of individuals following a military coup.
“In a dynamic compromise, experts from ECOWAS and Guinea have jointly developed a consolidated chronogram (timetable) for a transition spread over 24 months,” ECOWAS said in a report following a technical mission to the country published on social media by the junta.
The country’s military leader, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, said in an address broadcast on state television that the timetable would take effect from Jan. 1, 2023.
Leaders from the Economic Community of West African States must approve the timetable before it is officially implemented, with the bloc due to hold a summit before the end of the year.
The bloc had given the junta one month to present a “reasonable and acceptable” timetable for the return to civilian rule, an ultimatum that theoretically expires this weekend.
Diplomatic links between the two sides have remained and Guinean authorities have reiterated their readiness to cooperate with ECOWAS, which had dispatched its mission to Conakry to work out a compromise schedule.
Acceptable
The poor but mineral-rich West African state has been under a military government since a September 2021 coup that ousted president Alpha Conde after more than 10 years in power.
Colonel Doumbouya has since appointed himself president and vowed to restore civilian rule within three years.
Several West African officials have indicated that a two-year transition period would be acceptable.
A similar timeframe was agreed between ECOWAS and the junta in neighboring Mali after months of wrangling.
Under the terms of that agreement, reached in July, the Malian military was to hand over power in March 2024. By that time, they would have been in power for more than three-and-a-half years since overthrowing the elected civilian president in August 2020.
In recent years, ECOWAS has witnessed a succession of military coups in West Africa, in 2020 and 2021 in Mali, in 2021 in Guinea and twice this year in Burkina Faso.
In the face of military authorities, the bloc has duly increased its summits and country missions while ramping up pressure to shorten the transitional periods back to civilian rule.
Four dead in clashes
The transition compromise was reached after demonstrations broke out Thursday in the capital Conakry, with young protesters clashing with security forces and opposition group the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution claiming four civilians had been killed.
The FNDC — outlawed by the junta — had called for the protests to demand a quick return to a civilian-led government and the release of all prisoners detained for political reasons.
In response, Guinea’s top prosecutor on Friday called for a crackdown on the organizers and participants of a giant anti-government protest in which he said six security personnel had been wounded while the opposition said four civilians had been killed.
The FNDC identified three of the people killed as Thierno Bella Diallo, Boubacar Diallo and Thierno Moussa Barry. It said 20 people suffered gunshot wounds while many others were arrested.
Justice Minister Alphonse Charles Wright confirmed their deaths in a statement on Friday, but said the causes “remain to be clarified by autopsy.”
He ordered prosecutions, without commenting on the alleged perpetrators.
