In Guinea, a Military Junta Borrows the Leaders-For-Life Playbook
NEED TO KNOW
In Guinea, a Military Junta Borrows the Leaders-For-Life Playbook
GUINEA
When Guinea’s military leader, Mamadi Doumbouya, initially seized power in a coup in the fall of 2021, many in the country welcomed him as a “liberator.” After all, the country’s authoritarian president was breaking the constitution to stay in power while the new regime promised to return the country to a constitutional democracy.
But the Dec. 31, 2024 deadline that Guinea’s new military rulers had set to return to civilian rule passed and they were still in charge. Now, Doumbouya has announced the country will hold a referendum on a new constitution in September and elections that he says are necessary for civilian rule. Opponents, however, believe the junta is attempting to legitimize its hold on the country in a maneuver that is becoming a trend across West Africa: Long-term military rulers are replacing leaders-for-life.
“Guinea’s military junta is digging in for the long haul,” wrote World Politics Review, noting that Guinean authorities no longer talk of a “transition” to civilian rule but now a “refoundation” of the state. “As elsewhere in West Africa, a military regime is consolidating its power, yet another sign of a new era in the region.”
West Africa over the past five years has seen nine military coups, including in Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Gabon, earning the moniker, the “coup belt.”
After the coup in Guinea, which deposed Alpha Condé, who had attempted to stay in power via an illegal third term, the military rulers organized “national consultations” and busied themselves with drafting the constitution to buy themselves time to consolidate their rule, analysts said. At the same time, they eliminated the opposition by dissolving more than 50 political parties while targeting their greatest threat in any upcoming election – the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea, led by Cellou Dalein Diallo. Diallo is in exile in Senegal like other party leaders after he became the focus of politically motivated corruption probes and violence.
Another political leader, Aliou Bah of the Liberal Democratic Movement, was sentenced in January to two years in prison for insulting and defaming Doumbouya.
Meanwhile, the government has shut down media outlets, and attacked, kidnapped or detained journalists, banned protests, and violently cracked down on those that took place anyway. At least 59 people have died at demonstrations since 2022, Human Rights Watch reported.
At the same time, the military rulers have been “disappearing” people they perceive as opponents, for example, Oumar Sylla, (known as Foniké Menguè), who, with two other members of his opposition coalition, the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution, was taken from his home by security forces last year and has not been heard from since.
“Each of us is afraid for his own safety,” Abdoulaye Kourouma, the head of the opposition Rally for Renaissance and Development party told the Guardian. “Whether you are a scientist, a university scholar, a leader of opinion, a very good journalist, no one speaks today.”
Still, analysts say the nod toward legitimacy with the constitutional referendum and elections could be due to pressure on the military leaders in the past year.
In January, protests broke out after the junta missed the deadline to return to civilian rule, with the government cracking down violently and locking down parts of the capital of Conakry as a result.
Still, others argue that the junta has nothing to lose by holding elections with Doumbouya as their candidate. After all, it has eliminated the competition and holds all levers of power.
What it hasn’t been able to accomplish, say analysts, is true stability, similar to other countries in the region such as Mali, which has had three coups in the past 12 years. The real threat to Doumbouya is from within his own military and he worries about a palace coup just as the leaders of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso do.
Karim Manuel of the Economist Intelligence Unit told the Associated Press that anything can happen now and the juntas that rule across the region know it: “This increases political instability going forward and makes the situation on the ground much more volatile and unpredictable.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Australia To Protect 30 Percent of its Oceans by 2030
AUSTRALIA
Australia pledged to designate 30 percent of its ocean territory as “highly protected” by 2030, a move that would likely ban fishing and mineral extraction in its waters and comes as world leaders gathered in France for a United Nations summit aimed at protecting the seas, the Guardian reported Monday.
Australian Environment Minister Murray Watt announced the initiative during a reception at the UN Ocean Conference in the coastal town of Nice, a day ahead of the summit’s formal opening.
Watt said Australia will launch a three-year review of 44 marine parks as the basis for expanding the country’s network of fully protected zones.
Currently, about 52 percent of Australia’s waters fall within marine parks but only 24 percent are classified as “highly protected” – under which definition all extractive activities, including fishing, oil drilling, and mineral exploration, are strictly prohibited.
Watt emphasized that Australia “can achieve 30 percent” within five years, adding the country already protects “more ocean than any other country on Earth.”
He also said legislation would be introduced before the year’s end to ratify an oceanic biodiversity treaty – known as the High Seas Treaty – that Australia signed in September 2023.
Environmental groups welcomed the announcement but urged stronger climate action to complement marine protections.
They warned that oceans face increasing threats from global warming and pressed the Australian government to adopt more ambitious emissions reduction targets for 2035 – the current 2030 goal is a 43 percent cut from 2005 levels.
Australia’s pledges came as world leaders are meeting this week to address marine degradation, seabed exploitation, and the implementation of the High Seas Treaty.
On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron opened the summit with an urgent call for multilateral action to save the oceans, France 24 wrote.
Macron confirmed that the High Seas Treaty will soon take effect, with 60 ratifications now submitted – 50 of them just ahead of the summit.
He also called for a global moratorium on deep-sea mining, warning it could devastate fragile ecosystems.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres added that oceans must not become “the wild west.”
The summit comes amid growing concern that global efforts to protect marine biodiversity are falling short. According to the Marine Conservation Institute, less than three percent of the world’s seas are currently under full protection.
Thousands Protest in Spain Against the Government, Calling for a New Election
SPAIN
Tens of thousands of supporters of Spain’s opposition conservative Popular Party (PP) took to the streets in the capital Madrid on Sunday, demanding the resignation of socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez over corruption allegations and calling for early elections, the Associated Press reported.
Organizers said that up to 100,000 attended, according to Deutsche Welle, with official estimates half of that number.
Protesters waved red and yellow Spanish flags and chanted “Pedro Sánchez, resign!” and “Mafia or Democracy,” a response to alleged corruption accusations that Sánchez’s allies and family have been facing for the past year.
The protests follow the leak of an audio recording allegedly highlighting how Leire Díez, a former member of Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), waged a smear campaign against the Guardia Civil police unit investigating Sánchez’s wife, his brother, and the former transport minister, the Guardian reported.
In the recordings, Díez appeared to offer judicial leniency in return for compromising information on senior members of the unit. After the leak, Diez resigned from the PSOE. She has denied any wrongdoing on behalf of the prime minister or the party.
Meanwhile, the prime minister said his opponents are conducting a “harassment and bullying operation” against him and his wife, saying that false accusations directed at her are aimed at bringing him down.
Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, is under investigation for corruption and influence peddling after complaints brought up by Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), a group with links to the far right and a long history of targeting leftist political opponents via the courts, the Independent wrote.
Sánchez’s brother, David, is on trial for influence peddling and other offenses in a case that was also brought by Manos Limpias, among others. He denies the charges.
Meanwhile, PP’s leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo called for a snap election.
The PP, however, is still dogged by allegations of incompetence for its handling of the deadly floods that swept Valencia last year, one of the regions it governs. The party was also ousted from government seven years ago following several corruption scandals.
Israel Seizes Gaza Aid Boat in International Waters
ISRAEL/ WEST BANK AND GAZA
Israeli forces on Monday boarded and seized a humanitarian aid boat on its way to the Gaza Strip, detaining the 12 activists on board, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and French member of the European Parliament, Rima Hassan, the Washington Post reported.
The boat, Madleen, operated by the international Gaza solidarity group, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), was aiming to bring supplies to Gazans, including baby formula, diapers, women’s sanitary products, water desalination kits, medical supplies, and other goods, according to Politico.
Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz on Sunday instructed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to prevent the boat from reaching Gaza: Israel has long had a blockade on Gaza because it believes weapons are smuggled in along with aid, the BBC noted.
According to Israel’s foreign ministry, the boat arrived in Israel, and its passengers were expected to return home. The ministry also shared footage of soldiers handing out food and water to the people on board.
On Tuesday, the ministry said the activists were sent to Tel Aviv airport for deportation, the BBC added.
The FFC described its mission as a “peaceful act of civil resistance” and argued that the Israeli sea blockade is illegal.
Apart from Thunberg and Hassan, nationals from Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey were on board the United Kingdom-flagged Madleen that set off from Italy on June 1.
Some United Nations officials, European lawmakers, human rights and aid organizations criticized the capture of the ship in international waters, calling it a violation of international law.
DISCOVERIES
The First Pests
Rats and cockroaches take the top spot as the main urban pests plaguing city dwellers.
But a new genetic study suggests that bed bugs may have been one of the first to irritate humanity since the very first cities popped up thousands of years ago.
For their study, researchers analyzed the genomes of 19 bed bugs collected in the Czech Republic – nine from human homes, and the rest from bat roosts. Their goal was to trace how these pests evolved and spread.
The team found that bed bugs originally fed on the blood of an unknown host more than 100 million years ago before adapting to bats. Then their lineage split around 245,000 years ago when some of them began feeding on cave-dwelling humans.
The bugs eventually split into two genetically distinct populations that have curiously not yet diverged into separate species.
However, researchers found that the insects have faced some hard times since the last ice age, some 20,000 years ago.
“Initially with both populations, we saw a general decline that is consistent with the Last Glacial Maximum; the bat-associated lineage never bounced back, and it is still decreasing in size,” said lead author Lindsay Miles in a statement. “The really exciting part is that the human-associated lineage did recover and their effective population increased.”
That recovery appears to have started around 12,000 years ago and their populations skyrocketed roughly 8,000 years ago – timing that matches the rise of large permanent settlements, such as Çatalhöyük in modern-day Turkey and Uruk in ancient Mesopotamia.
Co-author Warren Booth said it’s likely that the parasites latched onto their human hosts when our ancestors decided to leave their cave abodes.
“When we started to live in cities … (people) had their own bedbugs with them,” Booth told the Guardian. “And then, as civilization spread across the world, the bugs spread with them to the point where they’re now ubiquitous in human society.”
While some scientists are skeptical of crowning bed bugs the first true urban insect pest – head lice, for example, have been with humans far longer – the authors say the findings highlight how closely human history has been intertwined with the bed bug.
The study also lays the groundwork for future research into how bed bugs have adapted to city life and developed resistance to modern pesticides.