CONAKRY (AFP) – Protests against Guinea’s junta and its handling of plans to return to democracy brought the capital to a standstill on Thursday, with organisers claiming that one person was killed.
The protest, planned last week, began ahead of comments by the chair of a regional bloc who claimed to have persuaded the junta to shorten its timeline for a return to democracy. The junta have not confirmed his comments.
The National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC) said one person had died after being hit by a bullet in the Conakry suburb of Hamdallaye, while several others were injured.
The FNDC is an influential political coalition that had called the demonstrations to denounce the junta’s “unilateral management” of the return to civilian rule after it seized power in 2021.
Authorities have not confirmed the death.
The public prosecutor on Thursday instructed prosecutors in several areas to take immediate legal action against the organisers of the demonstration, which was banned.
The FNDC has accused the military leaders of “systematically refusing” to establish a “credible dialogue” to define the terms of the transition.
The former ruling Rally for the Guinean People (RPG) and the National Alliance for Change and Democracy (ANAD), another coalition of parties and associations, then called on their supporters to join the demonstrations.
Speaking alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at a briefing in Bissau, ECOWAS regional bloc chair Umaro Sissoco Embalo, said he had recently convinced Guinea’s junta to hasten the return to democracy.
