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Military junta not in hurry to leave in Guinea, lists 10 prerequisites for handing over

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In response to the ultimatum given to it by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the military junta in Guinea has announced ten prerequisites for its handing over to a constitutional government.

The condition was listed among 10 other prerequisites amongst which:

“administrative census for civil status purposes”, the publication of” voter registration lists”, the “drafting of the new Constitution”, “organization of the referendum ballot”, “drafting of organic laws”, then, the “organizing local elections” followed by legislative elections, the “establishment of national institutions resulting from the new Constitution” and eventually “a presidential election”.

In December 2021, Leaders of the West African bloc ECOWAS called on Guinea’s military junta to provide a timetable for elections that would lead to a return to civilian rule. The bloc’s leaders issued a statement saying it remained “very concerned that three months after the coup d’etat, a timetable for the return of constitutional order is yet to be issued”.

Last September, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya led mutinous soldiers in the West African nation of Guinea to detain President Alpha Conde after hours of heavy gunfire rang out near the presidential palace in the capital, then announced on state television that the government had been dissolved in an apparent coup d’etat.

Doumbouya has been adamant and deaf to ECOWAS’s calls for a precise timetable for a civil government, he insists the timetable would be set by the National Transitional Council (CNT), an assembly that acts as a legislative body. Its 81 members were appointed in February.

Politics

Coup: Regional bloc, ECOWAS might intervene in Sierra Leone ‘if need be’

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Amidst a wave of military coups in the West African sub-region, a delegation of the ECOWAS Commission has hinted at likely bloc intervention in Sierra Leone following a failed coup over the weekend.

A chief of the commission and officials of the Nigerian government were received by Sierra Leone’s President, Julius Maada Bio, after Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the head of the 15-member sub-regional bloc, sent a message to Bio through Omar Alieu Touray, the head of the Ecowas Commission.

Gunmen last week exchanged fire for several hours with security forces in what the government attributed to “renegade soldiers.” Meanwhile, the police promised a “reward” to anyone providing information leading to the capture of 34 suspected fugitives.

“ECOWAS is ready and committed to supporting the people of Sierra Leone, including to strengthen their national security and the deployment, if need be, of regional elements,” Touray said.

The visit by the envoys appears to be a show of support for the government of Sierra Leone in the wake of the fatal attack that rocked the country’s capital, Freetown, on Sunday.

ECOWAS commended Bio’s and his government’s leadership in putting an end to what he described as a “very unfortunate incident.”

Concern has been raised by the wave of coups that have swept through Africa in the last three years, particularly in the West African bloc. The bloc has seen military takeovers of democratically elected governments in 2023 in Niger and Gabon, where troops removed Mohamed Bazzoum and Ali Bongo, respectively.

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Another Tunisian opposition leader, Moussi begins hunger strike in prison

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Another Tunisian opposition leader, Abir Moussi has begun a hunger strike in prison to protest what her lawyers described as a violation of her rights to freedom and political activity.

Moussi, who is a prominent opponent of Tunisian President, Kais Saied, was last month sentenced after police arrested her at the presidential palace entrance on suspicion of assault intended to cause chaos, viewed as part of a crackdown on opposition politicians by some watchers.

In a statement, her party, the Free Constitutional Party (PDL), cautioned against “attempts to fabricate legal obstacles to remove her from participating in the presidential elections” that are anticipated to take place the following year.

In a statement, her attorneys said that Moussi would go on a 16-day hunger strike to draw attention to the issue of violence against women in Tunisia. She is an advocate of the late president Zine El Abidine ben Ali, whose overthrow in 2011 was brought about by widespread demonstrations; an uprising subsequently extended throughout the Middle East, dubbed “the Arab Spring”.

In a similar move in September, embattled Tunisian opposition leader, Rached Ghannouchi, who has been a political prisoner since April, also threatened to begin a hunger strike in captivity.

Moussi faces charges of plotting against state security alongside other opposition figures who are in jail. She had accused Saied of staging a coup in order to close the elected parliament and impose rule by decree.

President Saied has been accused of suppressing dissenting voices in the nation since taking office. This year, the police has detained over 20 political figures, including Ghannouchi, on suspicion of trying to compromise national security.

More than 20 prominent politicians have been detained by police this year; some are a accused of being involved in plots against state security. “Terrorists, traitors, and criminals” is how Saied has characterised the people under arrest.

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