The Guinean government dissolved 40 political parties overnight from Friday to Saturday, including the three main opposition parties, less than two months after the inauguration of President Mamadou Doumbouya, who rules the country with an iron fist.

This decree from the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralization orders the dissolution of parties for "failure to meet their obligations", according to the text, which also removes their control of their resources.

General Doumbouya was elected at the end of December for a seven-year term in an election from which all the main opposition leaders were excluded, at the end of a tailor-made election.

The three main parties targeted by this text are the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG), led by Cellou Dalein Diallo and suspended in August 2025; the Rally of the Guinean People (RPG) of former president Alpha Condé, suspended in March 2025; and the Union of Republican Forces (UFR) of opposition leader Sidya Touré. All three leaders are living in exile.

This "dissolution entails the immediate loss of the legal personality and status of the formations concerned," specifies the decree, which prohibits "any political activity" as well as the use of "acronyms, logos, emblems and other distinctive symbols" associated with these formations.

Similarly, "the premises housing national headquarters and representations elsewhere are sealed off".

The assets of the parties have been placed under "sequestration", with a curator appointed to oversee their transfer, the decree further indicates, without specifying to whom or which entity.

"Dictatorship"

Movements representing civil society condemned this measure on Saturday.

"Adding to a long series of repressions," it "officializes a dictatorship now established as a mode of governance. The country is sinking into deep uncertainty," reacted Ibrahima Diallo, leader of the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC), a pro-democracy movement whose two figures, Oumar Sylla, alias Fonike Mengue, and Mamadou Billo Bah, have been missing since July 2024 after being abducted from the home of the former.

Political opponents have also been arrested, imprisoned or forced into exile, and their families are also being targeted.

Earlier this week, three members of the family of Tibou Kamara, a former minister and spokesperson under Condé, were abducted. And in November, four members of the family of exiled musician and opposition figure Elie Kamano were abducted, while the father of exiled journalist Mamoudou Babila Keita was kidnapped in September.

"State of health"

This dissolution comes at the very moment when Mr. Doumbouya returned to Guinea, where he was welcomed with great fanfare at Conakry airport on Friday, after a three-week absence that raised questions about his state of health.

Having left Guinea on February 13 to participate in an African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, he did not immediately return to his country.

Mamadi Doumbouya, 41, came to power in 2021 after overthrowing Alpha Condé, Guinea’s first freely elected president.

Since then, he has restricted public freedoms and banned demonstrations, causing the deaths of dozens of people, according to human rights advocates and civil society.

The junta in Guinea had initially pledged, under international pressure, to hand over power to elected civilians before the end of 2024, a promise it has not kept.

Since gaining independence from France in 1958, the West African country has consistently been ruled by authoritarian regimes. It is rich in minerals, but more than half of its inhabitants (52%) live below the poverty line, according to World Bank figures for 2024.

AFP