Guinea: Doumbouya's power leaves opponents mute with fear

The new draft constitution presented to Guinea’s President Mamady Doumbouya on June 30 contains several big changes, including a new seven-year term for the president and the creation of both a special high court and a senate. It does not explicitly say that Doumbouya, who seized power from former president Alpha Condé during a coup d’etat on September 5, 2021 can be a candidate. A referendum on the new constitution is set for September. 

The transitional plan established the day after the coup says that no member of the junta, the government, or anyone in transitional structures can run for the next elections. But for the past few months, many have been calling for General Doumbouya to run. In the four years that he has been in power, Doumboya has become omnipresent in Guinea – omnipotent, according to his detractors. 

In the latest episode of the Observers, which went live on July 5 (watch the video at the top of the article), these Guinean activists are speaking out against a regime that they say shuts down any and all dissent. 

Protests for ‘continuity’

“Before, you couldn’t go two metres in Conakry without seeing one of these portraits,” says a journalist, who requested anonymity. Up until spring 2025, hundreds of posters featuring images of General Doumbouya adorned the streets of the Guinean capital as well as other cities across the nation.

A variety of groups supporting the Guinean president paid for the posters and plastered them around town. However, in recent months, more and more people had been taking to social media to complain about the posters. Authorities in Conakry finally removed most of the posters in May.

“In a context where the cult of personality has sometimes weakened our institutions, this move is a clear indication of a desire to break with that,” said Ousmane Gaoual Diallo, the spokesperson for the Guinean government, who spoke to our team. 

“It’s to make more place for posters promoting the census, in light of the referendum and the presidential election,” set for the end of the year, says one activist. He notes that the slogan featured on some of the posters “Ka Doumbouya fo ka, Doumbouya ké”, which means “Doumbouya said, Doumbouya did” is well placed. 

When they are not busy hanging posters complimenting the general’s acts, his supporters – which include activists, high-level government officials, and political and religious figures – are often organising protests “for continuity”. Translation: for Mamady Doumbouya to stay in power. These protests continue despite the fact that the government banned all protests in May 2022. 

‘Citizens are pressured to come to these protests and given five euros if they do it’

Our Observer Alseny Farinta Camara, who directs the anti-corruption NGO Renade, says that supporters of the junta have changed their strategy in the wake of a recent tragedy. On December 1, 2024, there was a deadly stampede during a football match organised in Nzérékoré to honour the junta and its leader. According to official reports, 56 people were killed, though human rights defenders say that the real toll is closer to 140 dead. Officials were accused of hitting spectators with their cars as they fled.

"After Nzérékoré, the government changed its strategy, shifting to a policy of calling on political figures, artists, and religious chiefs to support the General by organising local rallies for ‘peace and national unity’.

From the information we’ve gathered, these protests in support of Doumboua seem to receive public money. Citizens are then pressured to attend these protests. If they do, they are given t-shirts and a sum of 50,000 Guinean francs, equivalent to 5 euros. "

Alseny Farinta Camara with the NGO Renade 

Vincent Foucher, a researcher specialising in West Africa at French research institute CNRS, says, “All the businessmen, all the people who were the financial backers of the RPG [Editor’s note: the political party of previous president Alpha Condé] participate financially in these ceremonies, football matches and concerts in honour of Doumbouya. It’s a way to make everyone forget that they had close links to the prior regime.” 

Government spokesperson Ousmane Gaoual Diallo denies these claims.

“The government didn’t organise or finance these protests,” he says, adding that "these accusations are aimed at delegitimising the sincere engagement of many Guineans” who support the junta.

A car in exchange for supporting Doumbouya?

In the past nearly four years, the junta has been able to recruit a lot of supporters. 

The current government is run by Bah Oury, who is from UFDG, the party of Cellou Dalein Diallo, who opposed both former president Alpha Condé and the junta. A number of officials in the party were kicked out for having shown support for the new authorities. Same for officials from the party of the former president, Condé, who is now in exile. 

“There are always marginalised factions within the big parties and the junta is an opportunity for the people who were part of these factions to raise their profiles,” Foucher says. “There are people who say: this junta is unavoidable. It needs civil and political partners. We can try to push it towards a better direction – or a less bad one.” 

Aside from politicians, the president also has the support of some activists and journalists, says Alseny Farinta Camara: 

"Yesterday, Aboubacar Condé and Lamine Mognouma Cissé were running a media outlet that was critical of the president, Djoma Media. Today, they are running a government [communication] platform, 'Guinée GOUV'. Culture minister Moussa Moïse Fila was a journalist who was very critical of the Condé regime as well as the start of the CNRD [Editor’s note: National Committee of Reconciliation and Development, the junta’s official name.]"

Our team contacted the three journalists, who all responded. Aboubacar Condé says that he is “not part of the government”.

“I am the coordinator of a service that takes care of the production of films made by the authorities,” he said.

“I’m still a journalist,” responded Lamine Mognouma Cissé. “That’s why I fight every day to carry out my profession through my website mosaiqueguinee.com, my economics magazine Émergence, and the weekly paper Le Punch."

Culture Minister Moussa Moïse Sylla said that he had “freely chosen, after ten years in the press, to use [his] experience in the service of the Republic alongside President Mamady Doumbouya”. 

The junta has been able to turn opponents into supporters, but it is also looking for footholds in all sectors. For that, it is ready to provide material compensation for those who show their support – and they aren’t hiding that fact. 

In May, clerics in the towns of Boké and Kamsar were offered cars by the executive, on behalf of the president. Singers, including Singleton, Oudy Ier, Camara Mousto and Johanna Barry, all of whom have thousands of followers on social media, have all posted photos recently posing by enormous cars and thanking President Doumbouya for his generosity.

After that, each of these singers recorded a song in the president’s honour. 

Perhaps the most newsworthy support that President Doumbouya has managed to drum up is the French-Guinean rapper Black M. The former member of Sexion d’Assaut posed with the president and wrote a song about the mining project Simandou 2040. He did not respond to our questions about if he has been rewarded for this support.

Disappearances of opponents blamed on the junta 

Most of the opposition figures who refused to collaborate with the junta are either in exile or are remaining silent. In 2024, the junta banned six radio and television stations, including the popular Espace TV and Djoma médias. One journalist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that he has started to censor himself:

"It’s very hard not to be able to carry out a profession as you should, and it makes me feel very guilty. We write some of our articles under a pseudonym. Sometimes, we don’t publish anything, but we do document what is going on. We put it on our site without making it public, but one day we will."

Our team asked the government about the impact of the closures of these media outlets in light of the upcoming elections. The government told FRANCE 24 that they were “in support of pluralist election coverage, as long as the rules are respected” and that the freedom of information was paired with “a minimum of rigour, equity and respect for the law”. 

“Who really opposes Mamady Doumbouya?” posited the magazine Jeune Afrique. In their article, they mentioned rallies… but also disappearances. In the past year, six men have been abducted. 

On July 9, 2024, Mamadou Billo Bah and Oumar Sylla, known as Foniké Mengué, were the first two to disappear. They were members of FNDC (an acronym for National Forum for the Defence of the Constitution), a coalition of NGOs brought together to oppose Condé’s bid for a third term. In October 2024, Saadou Nimaga, former secretary general of the Ministry of Mines and Geology went missing. In December, journalist Habib Marouane Camara disappeared. 

In February 2025, opposition activist Abdoul Sacko was kidnapped from his home. Videos of his home show the roof of his covered patio destroyed. Witnesses say that is how the kidnappers entered his home. On June 20, lawyer Mohamed Traoré disappeared.

Abdoul Sacko and Mohamed Traoré were released the day after they were kidnapped. They were both covered with injuries and evidence of torture. As for the other four men, there has been no news of them since they were taken. 

Witnesses and people close to those who were kidnapped share similar stories. They say that men in gendarme uniforms were present during the kidnappings.

“A gendarme pick-up truck cut off his car and intercepted him,” said Alpha Madiou Bah, a colleague of Habib Marouane Camara at the magazine Le Révélateur. “Gendarmes got out and broke his windshield. (...) They beat him with a truncheon. They knocked him out. They took him away while he was unconscious, according to witnesses of the scene.”

Camara’s wife, who was pregnant when he was captured, is still fighting for his release.

The authorities say they have nothing to do with these disappearances.  

“The government has requested that the justice system shed full light on the matter, strictly within legal bounds,” said government spokesperson Ousmane Gaoual Diallo. “No state structure was mandated or implicated in these acts. We have no interest – neither political nor institutional – in situations like this occurring. The respect of human rights and individual dignity is at the heart of what we do. We want the truth, like the families, and we’ll do everything for that to become clear.”

‘A small group of us created a circle of trust’

In the Observers show, Lansana (not their real name), an activist who said that they have been threatened with kidnapping, explains how they have changed their behaviour in light of these threats:  

"A small group of us have created a circle of trust. When you go somewhere, you let the others know that you are at X location and you say who you are meeting and for how long. Then, when you leave, you let the others know that you have started the journey back. If you are in a taxi or a moto taxi, you send the others the license plate. Sometimes we’ll even take a picture of the driver and send it to the group. Then, if something happens, they know where you were, what journey you were undertaking. The aim is so that people know your last location and who you were with, which enables an investigation to be carried out."

Lansana (not their real name), a Guinean activist

Activists denounce a “policy of terror”.

Researcher Foucher has analysed the situation. “These disappearances are a way to freeze the debate in an extreme way. There is much to criticise about Condé’s regime, but that is a new level of pressure. If you can disappear like that, without any news, then who is going to take the risk to stand up to the regime? Who is capable of that?”

When it took power, the junta announced that the transition period would take three years. All of the deadlines have now been exceeded. While the referendum is set for September, everyone has eyes on the presidential election. And even if the president has remained silent on the topic, both his supporters and the opposition are in agreement that Mamady Doumbouya will run and win.