Guinea
Guinea, 1958 to today. Draft, not yet reviewed
Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country located in West Africa. Formerly French Guinea, it achieved independence in 1958. Guinea has a history of military coups d'état. In 2021, a military faction overthrew president Alpha Condé and suspended the constitution.
Seat of power: Conakry
Rulers
Ahmed Sékou Touré
President of Guinea, 1958–1984
In 1960, he declared the Democratic Party of Guinea the country's only legal political party, and he was re-elected unopposed to four 7-year terms. Under his rule many people were killed, most notably at Camp Boiro.
Portrait of Ahmed Sékou Touré: Robert Knudsen. White House Photographs. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, Public domain, file
Lansana Conté
President of Guinea, 1984–2008
He came to power in the 1984 Guinean coup d'état. He denounced the earlier government's human rights abuses and released 250 political prisoners. In 2001, he organised and won a referendum to lengthen the presidential term, and he remained in power until his death in 2008.
Portrait of Lansana Conté: White House Television Office, Public domain, file
Louis Lansana Beavogui
President of Guinea, 1984–1984
He was Prime Minister from 1972 to 1984 and was briefly acting President in 1984. A military coup toppled the government and he was imprisoned in Kindia prison.
Portrait of Louis Lansana Beavogui: Renate Patzek, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, file
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Moussa Dadis Camara
President of Guinea, 2008–2010
He was the first chairman of the National Council for Democracy and Development, which seized power in a military coup d'état on 23 December 2008 shortly after the death of long-time president Lansana Conté. On 28 September 2009, 157 people were killed when the junta ordered its soldiers to attack people gathered to protest Camara's attempt to become president. On 3 December 2009, he was shot in the head during an assassination attempt and subsequently left the country to Morocco for medical treatment.
Portrait of Moussa Dadis Camara: Diplomatica, Public domain, file
Sékouba Konaté
President of Guinea, 2009–2010
He took control of the country when the president was shot in December 2009. He was appointed head of the transition regime tasked with the preparation of the 2010 presidential election. In 2010, he organized democratic elections, which were won by Alpha Condé.
Alpha Condé
President of Guinea, 2010–2021
In the 2010 presidential election he was elected president in a second round of voting, and he became the first freely elected president in the country's history. He was reelected in 2015 and again in 2020, after a constitutional referendum which allowed him to seek two more terms. On 5 September 2021, the Guinea Armed Forces arrested him and overthrew him.
Portrait of Alpha Condé: DFID - UK Department for International Development, CC BY 2.0, file
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Mamadi Doumbouya
President of Guinea, 2021 to today
He led a coup d'état on 5 September 2021 that overthrew the previous president, Alpha Condé. He was sworn in as interim president on 1 October 2021. He maintained his position after he won the 2025 Guinean presidential election.
Portrait of Mamadi Doumbouya: Ambassade des Etats-Unis Conakry, Guinée, Public domain, file
Culture
- The country is divided into four geographic regions: Maritime Guinea on the Atlantic coast, the Fouta Djallon or Middle Guinea highlands, the Upper Guinea savannah region in the northeast, and the Guinée forestière region of tropical forests.
- More than 24 indigenous languages are spoken, and the largest are Susu, Pular, and Maninka, which dominate respectively in Maritime Guinea, Fouta Djallon, and Upper Guinea, while Forest Guinea is ethnolinguistically diverse.
- Guinea's economy is mostly dependent on agriculture and mineral production. It is the world's second-largest producer of bauxite and has deposits of diamonds and gold.
Picture
Mount Richard-Molard is a mountain along the border of Guinea, Ivory Coast and Liberia in West Africa.
Image: Guy Debonnet, CC BY-SA 3.0 igo, file
Sources
Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.