• Guinea's opposition may agree to election
• Guinea to see $2.4 billion of its debt cancelled
• Paris Club governments agree on $344 million debt relief for Guinea

• Ethnic clashes erupt in Guinea capital
• Guinea: Ethnic riots spread in capital
• Guinea: state of emergency after post-poll riots

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Positive Trends
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Guinea's opposition may agree to election
10 June 2013 - After weeks of violent clashes, Guinea's ruling party and opposition succeeded in drafting a framework which might allow the country to move forward with much-delayed legislative elections, according to the international mediator brought in to help bridge the chasm between the two sides. Said Djinnit, the special representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, explained on Sunday that the opposition has agreed to rescind their boycott and will take part in the poll so long as 10 conditions are met. In return, the ruling party has agreed to delay the June date for the ballot. (more)

Guinea to see $2.4 billion of its debt cancelled
26 September 2012 - More than $2.4 billion of Guinea's foreign debt is being cancelled in a major boost for the deeply impoverished West African nation whose mineral riches were looted over decades of corrupt dictatorship, government officials said Wednesday. 'This will allow Guinea to free up substantial resources,' said Ansoumane Camara, an economist and consultant in Conakry who said the money could be redirected toward improving health and educational programmes. (more)

Paris Club governments agree on $344 million debt relief for Guinea
11 April 2012 - The Paris club of creditor governments agreed on Wednesday to provide $344 million in debt relief to Guinea, including more than $151 million in debt cancellation, the group said in statement. The Club said that Guinea's government was convincingly implementing a reform programme, which could lead to final round of debt relief with its Paris Club creditors. (more)

Guinea: Nutrition finds a place in agriculture plan
7 July 2011 - The quality of a baby's first solid food and teaching families about proper nutrition and hygiene are now part of Guinea's agricultural investment strategy. Experts working on the 2011-2015 agriculture plan, to be finalized in the coming weeks, say the first-ever nutrition component stems from an increasing recognition that agriculture must be harnessed to improve nutrition and health. (more)

Rival Guinea candidates make power-sharing pledge
11 October 2010 - Guinea's two rival Presidential candidates have agreed to include each other in government whoever wins a delayed 24 October runoff aimed at returning the country to civilian rule, a senior minister said on Monday. State Minister and Presidency Secretary-General Tibou Kamara said the accord, which could set the stage for a form of national unity government, came after a series of meetings between the candidates and junta leader Sekouba Konate. (more)

Turnout high as coup-prone Guinea votes in peace
27 June 2010 - Polling wound down peacefully in Guinea on Sunday in a landmark election offering voters their first chance to freely choose a leader since the coup-prone West African state won independence from France in 1958. 'Voting is peaceful, orderly, and there is a sense of excitement,' Yakubu Gowon, the former Nigerian leader heading the observation mission of US-based rights group the Carter Center, told reporters, estimating turnout at 75-80 per cent. (more)

Guinea: Voters hopeful as first free election held
26 June 2010 - The powerful leader of Guinea's military junta vowed to ensure this West African nation's first-ever free election on Sunday is fair and transparent, warning a roomful of presidential hopefuls they must help avert violence or risk casting the nation back to its volatile past. General Sekouba Konate, along with all members of his junta and a transitional governing council comprised of civilians are barred from running in the vote, which many hope will go down in history as the nation's first truly independent poll since independence from France in 1958. (more)

Unions in Guinea suspend general strike threat
10 January 2008 - Guinea's powerful unions have suspended a threat to start an indefinite general strike. (more)

Guinea: Investments in bauxite reserves to total $27 billion by 2015
8 August 2007 - The poor West African state of Guinea, home to a third of the world's bauxite reserves, expects large investment projects to total $27 billion by 2015, an official of a national anti-poverty programme said on Tuesday. (more)

Donors pledge $400 million to tackle poverty in Guinea
25 July 2007 - Foreign donors have pledged more than $400 million to tackle poverty in Guinea, aimed at boosting electricity, sanitation, water, and food supply in the West African country, the government said on Wednesday. (more)

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Flops
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Ethnic clashes erupt in Guinea capital
1 March 2013 - Rival gangs fought with knives and truncheons in Guinea's crumbling seaside capital on Friday as ethnic tensions worsened ahead of an election in the unstable West African nation, witnesses said. Security forces in full anti-riot gear piled into the backs of pick-up trucks and deployed across Conakry to separate the fighters as President Alpha Conde's government appealed for calm. Residents in other areas fled in panic as the gangs from rival ethnic groups roamed the streets, according to witnesses. The long-delayed legislative vote, tentatively set for May, is needed to complete a transition to civilian rule after a 2008 military coup. But preparations for the poll have been hampered by opposition claims the government is seeking to rig the outcome in advance, leading to a political impasse and sparking sporadic street protests that often turn violent. Politics in Guinea are mainly drawn along ethnic lines with the opposition coalition broadly supported by members of the Peul ethnicity -- the country's biggest ethnic group -- and the government supported by the Malinke. (more)

Guinea: Ethnic riots spread in capital
21 September 2012 - At least one person was killed on Friday, as ethnic riots pitting the Peul and the Malinke, the two largest ethnicities in the country, spread from a market in Conakry, to the suburbs of the Guinean capital, according to witnesses and the Red Cross. Tensions between the two groups have been running high ever since the 2010 Presidential election, which was won by Malinke politician Alpha Conde. He defeated a Peul candidate, and the vote was overwhelmingly carried out along ethnic lines. Since coming to power, Conde is accused of favouring his ethnic group in appointments to government ministries, all the way down to the guards and janitors. (more)

Guinea: state of emergency after post-poll riots
17 November 2010 - Guinea's military on Wednesday declared a state of emergency, further restricting civilian movement and giving the army permission to deploy in civilian areas as security forces continued to target members of the Peul ethnic group following a tense presidential election. The decree read on state TV by the head of the country's armed forces said the law would be in effect until Guinea's Supreme Court rules on whether to validate the provisional results from the election. The ethnic tension has already sparked clashes in neighbouring Sierra Leone where police arrested 20 people for rioting following clashes between Peul and Malinke, said Assistant Inspector General of Police Sorie Kargbo. Guinea borders Sierra Leone and Liberia, nations recovering from wars fuelled by ethnic divisions. For decades Guinea was a counterpoint to these two nations, with Peul and Malinke not only living side-by-side but also frequently intermarrying. (more)

Guinea vote starts spiral into dissent
10 November 2010 - The optimism and pride that marked Guinea's first democratic election has faded even before the votes are tallied, as early results show the two candidates are neck-and-neck, prompting both sides to accuse the other of fraud and heightening tension in a nation that has never chosen its leader freely. At the headquarters of candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo's party, officials were busy crafting legal briefs calling for results to be annulled from provinces where their constituents had not voted in large numbers. And inside the air-conditioned office of politician Alpha Conde, party bosses waved a piece of paper they said proved that more than the registered number of voters had cast ballots in a precinct favourable to their opponent. The closeness of the vote and the increasingly accusatory rhetoric of the two sides mark the beginnings of a dangerous standoff that could spill over into the street. (more)

UN: At least 1,800 of Guinea's Peul forced to flee
28 October 2010 - Thousands of Guineans from the Peul ethnic group have been forced to flee their homes in ethnic clashes ahead of the country's upcoming Presidential election, officials said Thursday, overshadowing a looming poll in a country that has never succeeded in freely electing its leader. The Peul have been chased out of towns in the country's north by Malinke supporters of Conde in a tit-for-tat fight following rumours that Peul businessmen tried to serve tainted water sachets at a Conde rally last Friday. The violence spread from the capital, where Conde's party said at least 160 of their supporters became intoxicated after drinking the water sachets, to the towns surrounding Kankan in the country's far north, which is a stronghold of Conde's party. Peul businesses were set on fire and looted. (more)

Violence halts Guinea presidential campaigns
12 September 2010 - Presidential campaigns in Guinea have been temporarily suspended after violence between rival campaign supporters left one person dead, a government official said Sunday. Telecommunications Minister Talide Diallo also said 54 people were wounded when rival political parties clashed after a campaign event in the capital Saturday. That figure more than doubles previous estimates of 24 wounded people. He said rallies and campaigning are suspended but that elections in the tiny West African nation will be held as scheduled on 19 September. The violence and its aftermath are signs of escalating tension ahead of next week's historic election, which many had hoped would mark a turning point for the troubled country that has known only authoritarian rule since winning independence from France in 1958. Each party blamed the other for starting the battles. (more)

Guinea seen stagnating as leader health question drag
31 December 2009 - Guinea will make no economic or social progress until uncertainty over the health of its wounded junta chief is resolved, potential investors and Conakry residents said Thursday. Defence Minister Sekouba Konate assumed interim control over the mineral-exporting West African country after a failed assassination attempt on the military ruler on 3 December. A measure of economic regression in the world's biggest exporter of aluminium ore bauxite -- shipments of which have fallen this year -- is the cost of foreign currency. On the black market, US dollars changed hands for 6,250 Guinean francs this week, up from around 5,000 francs before 28 September, when security forces killed more than 150 pro-democracy marchers. The United Nations said Dadis bears direct responsibility for those deaths. (more)

Report: Guinea abuses 'crime against humanity'
21 December 2009 - UN investigators say Guinea's wounded junta leader may bear responsibility for the mass killings and abuses of protesters in September, which they consider crimes against humanity. On 28 September, soldiers loyal to Captain Moussa 'Dadis' Camara sealed off the exits to the national soccer stadium where tens of thousands of protesters had gathered to demand an end to military rule. Troops entered and fired their assault rifles, spraying bullets into the unarmed crowd, survivors have said. According to the UN report, at least 156 people were killed or disappeared on that day. The investigators noted that the numbers of victims were probably even higher and said security forces carried out 'hundreds of other cases of cruel and degrading treatment' in the days following. The Commission defined the violence as 'systematic' and 'organized.' The report also singled out several members of President Camara's entourage as suspected of responsibility -- including Lt. Abubakar 'Toumba' Diakite, the man who shot him in a dispute on 3 December. (more)

Ethnic tensions simmer in crisis-struck Guinea
14 December 2009 - An assassination bid aimed at the first Guinean leader from the minority Guerze tribe has raised concerns that ethnic and regional divisions in the country could deepen. Junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara is in a hospital in Morocco after rogue soldiers attacked him and fled last week. President Camara took power last December in a coup after the death of former military strongman Lansana Conte, a Sousou. The country is dominated by the Malinke, Peul and Sousou ethnicities, but has more than a dozen smaller groups, including the Guerze from the forested 'forestier' region in the southeast. Most of the violent ethnic conflicts in Guinea's recent past have involved the Peul, who make up about 40 per cent of the country and who have never been in power. (more)

Guinea's September massacre pre-planned: HRW
28 October 2009 - The killing of more than 150 people at an opposition rally by Guinean security forces on 28 September was premeditated, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. The violent crackdown has drawn broad international condemnation of the country's ruling military junta led by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, with the European Union on Tuesday saying it would impose an arms embargo. Human Rights Watch said captain Camara and some of his closest military associates in the National Campaign for Democracy and Development (CNDD) junta should face criminal prosecution for the incident, Even before 28 September, initial popular support for the CNDD's anti-corruption stance had been replaced by dissatisfaction over their unwillingness to commit to stepping away from power, and erratic style of governance. (more)