Guinea’s transition to civilian rule to take 3 years: Coup leader

Colonel Mamady Doumbouya says on state tv after political consultations he's contemplating a transition of 39 months.

Colonel Mamady Doumbouya walks out after assembly the envoys from the Financial Group of West African States within the capital, Conakry [File: Saliou Samb/Reuters]

Ruling generals in Guinea say a transition again to civilian rule will in all probability take greater than three years, a proposal sure to upset West Africa’s political bloc that has known as for a swift return to constitutional order after final 12 months’s coup.

Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, head of the army authorities that took energy in September, informed state tv late on Saturday that after political consultations he was contemplating a transition of 39 months, the primary time he has proposed a timeline.

In September 2021, military officers led by Doumbouya eliminated elected President Alpha Conde within the impoverished former French colony.

Conde, 84, had drawn fierce opposition after he pushed via a brand new structure in 2020 that allowed him to run for a 3rd presidential time period.

Military officers led by Doumbouya overthrew President Alpha Conde in September [File: John Wessels/AFP]

The Financial Group of West African States (ECOWAS) had set final Monday as a deadline for placing ahead an “acceptable” transition timetable or danger financial and monetary sanctions.

Guinea’s ruling army let the deadline move, nonetheless, asking ECOWAS for extra time for consultations to proceed.

ECOWAS has known as for an “acceptable” timeline for a return to civilian rule, failing which it has threatened to increase sanctions utilized to Guinea following the coup.

Coups in West Africa

Navy leaders have additionally snatched energy in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea during the last two years, elevating considerations of a backslide in democracy in West Africa, which over the previous decade had begun to shed its status as a “coup belt”.

The coups have put the international locations at odds with ECOWAS, which is making an attempt to place energy again in civilian palms.

ECOWAS has already imposed broad sanctions on Mali after army leaders proposed holding onto energy till 2025, hammering its fragile financial system by shutting it off from regional commerce and monetary markets. ECOWAS has given Mali 12-16 months to organise democratic elections.

When Burkina Faso’s leaders proposed a three-year transition to civilian rule, ECOWAS known as for “a extra acceptable timeline”, however stopped in need of imposing sanctions on the impoverished state.

ECOWAS has imposed sanctions on Guinea’s army leaders however not on the broader financial system. A spokesperson was not obtainable for touch upon Guinea’s new timeline.