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, West African bloc ECOWAS said on Friday.
West African leaders expelled Guinea from the bloc last month and imposed sanctions on a number of people following a military coup.
“In a dynamic compromise, experts from ECOWAS and Guinea have jointly developed a consolidated chronogram (timetable) for a transition spanning 24 months,” ECOWAS said in a report following a technical mission to the country carried out by the junta in the was published on social media.
The country’s military leader, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, said in a speech broadcast on state television that the schedule will come into effect on January 1, 2023.
Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States must approve the schedule 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 a month to present a “reasonable and acceptable” timeline for a return to civilian rule, an ultimatum that theoretically expires this weekend.
Diplomatic links between the two sides have remained and the Guinean authorities have confirmed their willingness to work with ECOWAS, which sent its mission to Conakry to work out a compromise plan.
– acceptable –
The poor but resource-rich West African country has been under a military government since a coup in September 2021 that ousted President Alpha Conde after more than 10 years in power.
Colonel Doumbouya has since proclaimed himself president and promised to restore civilian rule within three years.
Several West African officials have indicated that a two-year transition period would be acceptable.
A similar timeline was agreed after months of wrangling between ECOWAS and the junta in neighboring Mali.
Under the terms of this agreement, reached in July, the Malian military was to hand over power in March 2024. At that point, they would have been in power for more than three and a half years since the civilian president-elect was overthrown in August 2020.
In recent years, ECOWAS has witnessed a series of military coups in West Africa, in Mali in 2020 and 2021, in Guinea in 2021 and twice this year in Burkina Faso.
Faced with military authorities, the bloc has duly increased its summits and country missions, while ramping up pressure to shorten transition times back to civilian rule.
– Four dead in clashes –
The transitional compromise was reached after demonstrations broke out in the capital, Conakry, on Thursday, where young protesters clashed with security forces and the National Front in Defense of the Constitution, opposition group, claiming four civilians had been killed.
The FNDC – banned by the junta – had called the protests to demand a speedy return to civilian government and the release of all political prisoners.
In response, Guinea’s top prosecutor on Friday called for a crackdown on organizers and participants in a huge anti-government protest in which he said six security forces were injured while the opposition said four civilians were killed.
The FNDC identified three of those killed as Thierno Bella Diallo, Boubacar Diallo and Thierno Moussa Barry. It said 20 people had suffered gunshot wounds and many others had been arrested.
Attorney General Alphonse Charles Wright confirmed her death in a statement on Friday, but said the causes “have yet to be determined by autopsy.”
He ordered prosecutions without commenting on the alleged perpetrators.
