Guinea: Junta orders probe into ex-president Conde for alleged treason

Guinea has announced an investigation into former president Alpha Conde’s alleged involvement in treason, two years after the ex-president was overthrown in a coup by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya’s special army squad in September 2021.

Guinea’s public prosecutor reportedly received a letter from Justice Minister Alphonse Wright, requesting that the new authorized investigation look into “alleged acts of treason, criminal conspiracy and complicity in the illicit possession of arms and ammunition” committed by the ex-president, who has been living in exile in Turkey. The probe puts more legal pressure on Conde, Guinea’s first democratically elected leader of the former French colony after decades of authoritarian and dictatorial regimes. He is already facing allegations of corruption, assassination, and torture.

The coup in 2021 came after he sought to extend his decade-long tenure with a third term in office and violently suppressed protests against the election bid.

Doumbouya seized power in the coup with a promise to hand the reins of government to elected civilians by January 2026. Guinea’s military leaders have since launched a slew of judicial probes and prosecutions against Conde and people close to him, including for alleged corruption, assassination, torture, kidnapping, and rape. Guinea is one of several West and Central African states to have undergone at least one coup since 2020, the others being Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.