A junta led by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya overthrew President Alpha Conde in September. By JOHN WESSELS (AFP)
The head of the West African regional bloc told a briefing with the French president on Thursday that Guinea would shorten its transition to civilian rule from three to two years.
However, Conakry has yet to confirm the statement by the President of Guinea-Bissau, Umar Sissoc Embalo, who is the acting head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
"I was in Conakry with the president of the commission (ECOWAS) so that the military junta understood the decision of the summit of heads of state that the transition must not exceed 24 months," Embalo said at a press conference in Bissau alongside the French president. Emmanuel Macron.
"They suggested 36 months, but we managed to convince them," he added.
An ECOWAS official added on condition of anonymity: "The principle is accepted, but we were waiting for its formalization... before we announce it."
Guinean authorities did not respond to AFP requests for comment.
The junta led by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, which ousted President Alf Conde in September last year, has pledged to hand power to elected civilians within three years.
But regional powers rejected this timeline and ECOWAS suspended Guinea after the coup.
West African mediators met with Guinea's ruling junta last week to discuss a return to civilian rule, according to ECOWAS and state media.
Embalo, Gambian diplomat Omar Alieu Touray, who chairs the bloc's commission, and former Benin president Thomas Boni Yayi, the ECOWAS mediator for Guinea, were all present.
Protests in Conakry
In early July, ECOWAS leaders met in Ghana's capital, Accra, to discuss the transition to civilian rule in Guinea, as well as Mali and Burkina Faso, which have collectively undergone four coups since August 2020.
They lifted the harsh sanctions that had been imposed on the Malian military regime and accepted a return to civilian rule in March 2024.
And they agreed to give Burkina Faso two years to transition back to democracy.
Until then, however, discussions with the rulers of Guinea, where the junta has announced a 36-month transition - a period described as "unthinkable" by the African Union chairman and Senegalese president Macky Sall - have been trickier.
On Thursday, protests against Guinean military leaders brought Conakry to a standstill.
The National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC), a coalition of political parties, unions and civil society organizations, called the demonstrations to denounce the junta's "unilateral management" of any return to civilian rule.
Other parties and coalitions joined the protests.
The junta banned public demonstrations in May, and Thursday's protests led to sporadic clashes between protesters and police.
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