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Conakry. — Guinea’s ruling military came under diplomatic pressure last Friday as the African Union suspended the country over the September 5 coup, and West African envoys arrived to mediate in the crisis.
Mediators who met ousted President Alpha Condé said he was in good health.
The regional bloc ECOWAS had already suspended Guinea after special forces led by Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya seized power on Sunday last week and arrested Condé.
Last Friday, the African Union (AU) followed suit, tweeting that it had decided “to suspend the Republic of Guinea from all AU activities and decision-making bodies.”
Mediators from ECOWAS — the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States — also landed in the capital Conakry last Friday, AFP journalists saw.
ECOWAS Commission president Jean-Claude Kassi Brou is part of the delegation, as are the Nigerian, Ghanaian, Burkinabe and Togolese foreign ministers.
“President Alpha Condé is well,” Kassi Brou told reporters after ECOWAS mediators saw the deposed president in the city’s junta headquarters.
The envoys met junta member Colonel Balla Samoura in a hotel in Conakry, according to a diplomat who requested anonymity, and are due to leave the city on Friday evening.
Increasing pressure on Guinea comes amid rising fears of democratic backsliding across West Africa, where strongmen are an increasingly familiar sight.
The putsch in Guinea has drawn parallels with its neighbour Mali, which has suffered two coups since August last year, led by Colonel Assimi Goita, who was also a special forces commander.
On Wednesday last week, ECOWAS called for Condé’s “immediate and unconditional release.”
It also urged “the immediate return to constitutional order” and demanded that the security forces “maintain a constitutional posture.” — France24
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