Guinea‘s main opposition leader said “direct resistance” to the country’s coup leader-turned-president was now the only way to bring about change after the government consolidated its position by dissolving 40 political parties. President Mamady Doumbouya, a former special forces commander, seized power in 2021 and won a seven-year term as president in December in a result contested by his opponents. Legislative elections are expected in May in the West African nation, which is rich in bauxite and iron ore.
Guinea’s Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralization said in a decree late on Friday that 40 parties’ headquarters and local offices would be closed and use of their logos, acronyms “and other distinctive signs” would be prohibited. The decree said the parties had failed to meet legal obligations such as filing financial statements; several of the dissolved political parties have protested, maintaining they had fulfilled all legal requirements. In a video statement published on social media on Sunday, Guinea’s main opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo said “war has been openly declared” on Doumbouya’s challengers.
He called on Guineans to engage in “direct resistance”, without specifying what exactly that should look like. And he said political change would not happen through dialogue or democratic processes. “The head of the junta and his malevolent clique want to rewrite the country’s history by erasing from the political landscape all forces likely to overshadow his nascent one-party state,” he said.
A government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Diallo is in exile outside the country, as is former President Alpha Conde, who Doumbouya toppled and whose party was also dissolved on Friday. Guinea has a history of political violence, including during the 2020 election which Diallo said he had won. The December 2025 election was tightly controlled and unfolded without major security incidents. Political opponents have been arrested, put on trial or driven into exile, while enforced disappearances and kidnappings have multiplied.
Included among the dissolved groups are Guinea’s three main political parties: the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG) led by its exiled leader Cellou Dalein Diallo, the Rally of the People of Guinea (RPG) led by ex-president Alpha Condé, and the Union of Republican Forces (UFR). “This dissolution entails the immediate loss of the legal personality and status of the parties concerned”, the order said.
That includes “all political activities” as well as the use of “acronyms, logos, emblems and other distinctive symbols” associated with the groups, it said. The parties’ assets have been placed under “sequestration” with a curator appointed to oversee their transfer, the decree said, without specifying to whom or to what entity. Civil society movements condemned the parties’ dissolution Saturday, calling it an autocratic power grab. Doumbouya, 41, came to power in 2021 when he toppled Conde, Guinea’s first freely elected president. Guinea’s new constitution, approved in a referendum last September, allowed junta members including Doumbouya to stand for election and lengthened presidential terms from five to seven years, renewable once.
Not only have opposition voice disappeared on Doumbouya’s watch but so have their family members. Earlier this month three relatives of Tibou Kamara, a former minister and spokesman under Conde were kidnapped. Four family members of exiled musician and opposition figure Elie Kamano were abducted in November and the father of exiled journalist Mamoudou Babila Keita was kidnapped in September. Guinea has had a complex history of military and authoritarian rule since its 1958 independence. The country is rich in minerals, but more than half of its inhabitants live below the poverty line, according to World Bank figures for 2024.
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