Guinean junta replaces provincial governors after coup, media say

September 7, 2021

CONAKRY (Reuters) – The soldiers who seized power in Guinea over the weekend have consolidated their takeover with the installation of military provincial governors, Guinean media reported on Tuesday.

West African leaders have threatened sanctions over the overthrow of President Alpha Conde, who was serving a controversial third term after first winning election in 2010, and will meet to discuss the situation on Thursday.

Coup leader Mamady Doumbouya, a former officer in the French Foreign Legion, has promised a transitional government of national unity and a “new era for governance and economic development”. But he has not yet explained exactly what this will entail, or given a timeframe.

Sunday’s uprising, in which Conde and other top politicians were detained or barred from travelling, is the third since April in West and Central Africa, raising concerns about a slide back to military rule in a region that had made strides towards multi-party democracy since the 1990s.

The governor of Guinea’s easterly Kankan province, Sadou Keita, called his replacement on Monday by a general a moment of “joy and remorse”, Inquisiteur.net reported.

In Labe province in the north, soldiers took down a photograph of Conde from the walls of Governor Elhadj Madifing Diane’s office as he handed over to a lieutenant-colonel, Media Guinea reported.

The coup has triggered concerns about supplies of bauxite, the main aluminium ore, from Guinea, the world’s second-largest producer.

The benchmark aluminium contract hit a 10-year high on the London Metal Exchange on Monday, and prices for bauxite from Guinea hit their highest in almost 18 months in China.

However, mines have not reported any disruption.

State-run Chinese aluminium producer Chalco’s, bauxite project in Guinea said it was operating normally.

The Australian-listed bauxite and gold exploration firms Lindian Resources and Polymetals Resources also said on Tuesday that their activities were unaffected.

During his decade in power, Conde steered Guinea through a decade of economic growth, but unemployment remained high.

Frustration boiled over into protests last year when he chose to seek a third term, a move that opposition groups said was illegal.

(Reporting by Hereward Holland; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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