A military coup in Guinea overthrew President Alpha Conde on Sunday, September 5, 2021.
The coup was conducted by the Special Forces Group, led by Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya.
Mr. Doumbouya announced the arrest of President Alpha Conde and the dissolution of the country’s institutions.
But, who is Mamady Doumbouya ?
Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya is of Malinke ethnicity from the Kankan region who has led the Special Forces Group (or GPS) since 2018. He is also a former legionnaire in the French army, before being recalled to Guinea to join the Special Forces Group, which is a strong military unit of the Guinean army.
Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya is a graduate of the War Academy with more than 15 years of military experience. He has completed several missions abroad, including in Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Central African Republic and Afghanistan, as well as close protection missions in Guinea, the United Kingdom, Israel, Cyprus, etc.
According to the Director of Information and Public Relations of the Guinean Army, ” Commander Mamady Doumbouya has successfully completed the Operational Protection Specialist Training at the International Security Academy (Israel), the Unit Commanders Training Course at the Ecole d’application de l’infanterie (E.A.I. – Senegal), the Staff Officer Training (EEML Libreville) and the Ecole de guerre de Paris”. He is described as an individual who has the full ability to identify and defuse risky situations by remaining calm in a hostile environment and under extreme pressure. Furthermore, Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya is a person of initiative, who takes his responsibilities and does not hesitate to make his needs heard. Indeed, a few months ago, he aroused the suspicion of the authorities after expressing his intention to have the Special Forces Group autonomous from the Ministry of Defense. This claim sparked rumors (unverified) of his possible arrest. But no action was taken by the Conde government.
Besides, if he first appeared in public on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary parade on October 2, 2018, he has since marked the spirit of a large part of the Guinean population. Indeed, since the political crisis that shook Guinea with the controversial re-election of Alpha Conde to a third term, the name of Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya is very often evoked as a possible military intervention to overthrow a president who is not recognized as legitimate by a large part of the population. All these developments in recent months, the pressure and the rumors of his arrest after he asked for the independence of the Special Forces Group from the Ministry of Defense, have apparently fostered the coup d’état of September 5, 2021. Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya also knew that he had the support of a significant part of his brothers in arms.
Indeed, immediately after the announced coup and the arrest of President Conde, Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, red berets on his head, addressed the army, calling on his “brothers in arms to unite in order to respond to the legitimate aspirations of the people of Guinea. Nevertheless, he also invited them to “remain in the barracks” in order to “continue regal activities.” This action is regarded as a strategy to dissuade soldiers loyal to the deposed president who were engaged in gunfire with the mutineers. Indeed, heavy gunfire rocked central Conakry in the morning of the coup, with a large deployment of the army to confront the mutineers. Nevertheless, after the announcement of Conde’s capture, calm quickly returned to the capital, as the crowd rejoiced in celebration of the overthrow of controversial president Alpha Conde.
In his statement on national television, Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya announced the creation of a National Committee for Assembly and Development (CNRD), which he will lead. This situation is reminiscent of the coup d’etat in Mali in August 2020, which saw Colonel Assimi Goïta take charge of the National Transitional Council that the mutineers established after ousting President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta from power.
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