Guinea

Decree strips parties of legal status and assets, as opposition leader calls on Guineans to resist

Guinea’s government has dissolved 40 political parties, including the country’s three main opposition groups, in a move critics say marks the final step towards a one-party state under President Mamady Doumbouya.

The Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation issued the decree late on Friday, citing the parties’ failure to meet their legal obligations.

Beyond stripping them of their legal status, the order froze their assets and banned the use of their names, logos and emblems, with a government-appointed curator assigned to oversee the transfer of their holdings.

The three most prominent parties dissolved are the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG), the Rally of the Guinean People (RPG) – the party of ousted former President Alpha Condé – and the Union of Republican Forces (UFR).

All three had already been suspended last August, weeks before a constitutional referendum that cleared the way for Doumbouya to stand in December’s presidential election.

UFDG leader Cellou Dalein Diallo, speaking from exile, accused Doumbouya of dismantling democratic life to entrench his grip on power. In a video posted to Facebook on Sunday, he said the dissolution was part of a deliberate drive to build a “party-state” and urged supporters to “rise as one” against a government that had lasted “far too long”.

He said that dialogue and legal routes had been exhausted, while his party’s communications coordinator went further, describing the decree as “the final act of a true political farce” aimed at cementing single-party rule.

Ibrahima Diallo, a leader in the pro-democracy National Front for the Defence of the Constitution, said the move had “formalised a dictatorship” and warned that Guinea was sinking into “profound uncertainty”.

The crackdown is the latest in a sustained campaign against dissent under Doumbouya, who seized power in a 2021 coup before winning a presidential election in December, a vote from which all major opposition figures were barred.

Since taking power, his government has shut down media outlets, banned protests and arrested or driven into exile scores of opposition figures and civil society activists.

Several relatives of prominent dissidents have also been abducted, and two well-known pro-democracy activists have been missing since July 2024.

Wave of coups

A wave of coups has brought military leaders to power in Africa, across a belt stretching from the Atlantic through the Sahel region to the Red Sea since 2020, while an attempted coup in Benin failed in late 2025.

The development has led to what analysts have described as a “coup belt“.

Madagascar’s and Guinea-Bissau’s armies most recently removed civilian leaders in their respective countries from power in late 2025, underscoring growing discontent with elected governments.

Although often carried out with popular backing, the military takeovers have also seen civil liberties clawed back.

A 2025 study found that while military takeovers have declined globally, the risk of coups in Africa remains comparatively high.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

This is a breaking news story.

Sustained gunshots have been heard near the central prison in Guinea’s capital, Conakry, according to media reports.

It was unclear who was shooting or what triggered the gunfire on Tuesday. There was no immediate comment by the authorities.

A witness reported seeing several military pickup trucks carrying armed security forces and a machine gun-mounted armoured carrier deployed around the central administrative district of Kaloum, Reuters news agency reported. The presidential palace is also located in Kaloum.

A security detail made up of police officers and special forces blocked access to the road leading to the prison on Tuesday morning, an AFP news agency journalist reported. An armoured vehicle belonging to the special forces was also visible in front of the prison.

“I heard the sound of vehicles speeding by, I rushed to the window and heard automatic gunfire,” Thierno Balde, an accountant who works in the neighbourhood, told AFP, confirming similar statements by other witnesses.

The shooting reportedly began shortly before 9am local time (09:00 GMT) and lasted just more than half an hour, with rapid gunfire ringing out.

Abdouramane Doukoure, a retired civil servant, said he was heading past the prison in a car when he “heard the gunshots. Since there was a traffic jam, we all rushed in different directions to escape.”

Another resident whose home is next to the prison reported hearing gunfire inside the facility but “as we speak, things have calmed down”.

But “we don’t know for how long”, the resident added.

More to come…