Guinea experienced a transition to civilian rule in 2010, following a 2008 military coup and decades of authoritarian governance. Ethnic division, corruption, a crackdown on dissent, and the abuse of civilians by security forces marked the subsequent decade. A section of the armed forces, the Special Forces Group (GFS), staged the third military coup since independence in 2021. The transitional authorities have since delayed a return to civilian rule and use repressive tactics to silence their critics.

• In February, the military junta headed by interim president and 2021 coup leader Mamady Doumbouya dissolved the government of Prime Minister Bernard Goumou without explanation and appointed a new government, with Mamadou Oury Bah serving as prime minister. In July, the transitional authorities presented a draft constitution with the aim of replacing the 2020 constitution that was suspended in 2021 as well as the transitional charter introduced that year. Among other notable features, the draft constitution called for a bicameral parliament, a maximum of two five-year terms for the president, and an amnesty for members of the junta; unlike the transitional charter, it did not bar Doumbouya from seeking election as president. However, at year’s end the government had failed to schedule a referendum to approve the document, further postponing a return to elected civilian rule.
• The junta and transitional government worked to sideline potential rivals and suppress political dissent through arbitrary arrests, prison sentences, and other interventions. In June, General Sadiba Koulibaly, who had been appointed as chief of staff of the armed forces after the coup and most recently served the junta as a diplomat in Cuba, was arrested, sentenced by a military court to five years in prison for alleged desertion and weapons offenses, and then reported to have died in custody under suspicious circumstances. In October, a government ministry dissolved 53 political parties, suspended 54 for three months, and placed 67 others under observation, citing problems with their registrations and other regulatory compliance issues. In December, Amadou Damaro Camara of the Rally of the People of Guinea party—the president of the National Assembly at the time of the coup—was sentenced to four years in prison after a trial on corruption charges; he had been in detention since 2022.
• Throughout the year, the Living Forces of Guinea (FVG), a coalition of political parties and civil society groups, continued to demand a return to elected civilian rule. Its attempts to organize protests, in defiance of a blanket ban on demonstrations that had been in place since 2022, resulted in arrests, injuries, and several deaths at the hands of security forces, though the frequency and intensity of such protests reportedly ebbed during the year under pressure from the junta. In July, two leaders the antijunta civil society group National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC), Oumar Sylla and Mamadou Billo Bah, were arrested, allegedly tortured, and disappeared in custody; their whereabouts remained unknown at year’s end.
• Journalists and media outlets faced ongoing repression from the authorities. Security forces raided a press freedom rally in January and arrested several participants, and in May the government rescinded the operating licenses of four radio and two television stations. News website administrator Habib Marouane Camara was arrested in December and remained forcibly disappeared at the end of the year.
• In July, a Guinean court convicted 2008 coup leader Moussa Dadis Camara and seven other alleged perpetrators of the 2009 Conakry stadium massacre, in which the Camara-led junta’s forces killed more than 150 peaceful protesters and sexually assaulted many women and girls. The offenses were classified as crimes against humanity, and the defendants were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 10 years to life, with Camara receiving a 20-year term. The trial, which had begun in 2022, was supported by the International Criminal Court and broadcast live.

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For additional background information, see last year’s full report.