The head of Guinea’s military Junta, Col. Mamadi Doumbouya, has defended the recent and widespread coups in Africa.
According to the military leader, who was sworn in as Guinea’s military president following the coup in 2021, the recent coups in Africa are attempts by militaries to save their countries from presidents’ “broken promises”.
The News Agency of Nigeria reported that he also condemned Western countries for boxing-in the continent of more than one billion people.
Doumbouya told the United Nations General Assembly that beyond condemning the coups, global leaders must also “look to and address the deep-rooted causes.”
“The putschist is not only the person who takes up arms to overthrow a regime.
“I want us all to be well aware of the fact that the real putschists, the most numerous, are those who avoid any condemnation – they are those … who cheat to manipulate the text of the constitution in order to stay in power eternally,” he stated.
Doumbouya accused some leaders in Africa of clinging to power by any means – often including amending the constitution – to the detriment of their people.
In Guinea, he said he led soldiers to depose then-President Alpha Conde in the September 2021 coup to prevent the country from “slipping into complete chaos.”
He said the situation was similar in other countries hit by coups and resulted from “broken promises, the lethargy of the people, and leaders tampering with constitutions with the sole concern of remaining in power to the detriment of collective well-being.”
Doumbouya also rebuffed attempts by the West and other developed countries to intervene in Africa’s political challenges, saying that Africans are “exhausted by the categorisations with which everyone wants to box us in.”
“We Africans are insulted by the boxes, the categories which sometimes place us under the influence of the Americans, sometimes under that of the British, the French, the Chinese, and the Turks.
“Today, the African people are more awake than ever and more than ever determined to take their destiny into their own hands,” the Guinean leader said.
