Guinea: Who is Mamady Doumbouya, the man once closest to Alpha Condé?

Mamady Doumbouya appeared on Radio-Télévision Guinéenne (RTG) on 5 September at 2pm. The lieutenant-colonel – who had a tricolour flag draped over his shoulders, while wearing a red beret and dressed in fatigues – was surrounded by eight of his men when he announced President Alpha Condé’s dismissal. The head of the Special Forces Group also declared that he had led this coup and proclaimed himself Guinea’s new strongman.

“We will no longer entrust politics to one man, we will entrust it to the people. There have been many deaths, injuries and tears for nothing,” he said, slamming the mismanagement, corruption and bad governance that had previously reigned in Guinea. He confirmed that the institutions have been suspended, that a new constitution will be drawn up and that the Comité National du Rassemblement et du Développement (CNRD) will govern during the transition period.

Doumbouya seems to have followed in the footsteps of Jerry Rawlings, the putschist father of Ghanaian democracy. He concluded by saying that “Guinea is beautiful. We don’t need to rape Guinea anymore, we just need to make love to her.” The colossus has now become a poet.