The head of the junta in Guinea, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, was sworn in on Friday as president of this West African country for a period of transition of still unknown duration and content.
The commander of the special forces who overthrew President Alpha Condé on September 5, in a beige ceremonial uniform, wearing a red beret and dark glasses, was sworn in before the Supreme Court, shortly after 12:30 p.m. (local and GMT), during a ceremony at the Mohammed-V Palace in Conakry.
He swore “to preserve national sovereignty in all loyalty”, to “consolidate democratic gains, to guarantee the independence of the homeland and the integrity of the national territory”.
The ceremony was held on the eve of the national holiday celebrating the declaration of independence. This Friday has been declared a holiday.
Colonel Doumbouya led the third putsch in a year in West Africa, after two coups in neighboring Mali.
He and his men completed it in a matter of hours at the cost of an unknown number of human lives, with the media reporting ten or twenty deaths. Alpha Condé, 83, is still being held incommunicado.
This coup d’etat is part of the tormented history of this tried country, poor despite its considerable natural resources, ruled for decades since independence by authoritarian or dictatorial regimes.
He was widely condemned by the international community but greeted by scenes of jubilation among a population exasperated by the poverty, corruption and repression of recent years.
Source: News Agencies