Guinea’s opposition coalition has claimed that at least four people were shot dead and several got injured during a second day of anti-government protests in capital Conakry on Friday, reported The Reuters.
The protests were called by the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC), a coalition of political parties, trade unions and civil society organisations that led anti-Conde protests in 2019 and 2020, to denounce the Guinea’s military junta’s “unilateral management” of any return to civilian rule.
President Conde was overthrown last year after changing the constitution to allow himself to run for a third term in 2020.
“The FNDC is profoundly shocked and outraged by the loss of human lives registered during the day of Friday 29th of July,” the FNDC said in a statement.
The statement added that four deaths were reported by monitoring groups and victims’ family members, and several people wounded by gunshot of which five in critical condition.
This week’s demonstrations were the second major protest against the junta in recent months. Last month, one person was killed in a protest over fuel price hikes, and Guinea’s authorities charged a police officer with his murder.
Coup leader and interim President Mamady Doumbouya has proposed a 36-month transition to elections, which regional leaders and opposition politicians have rejected. Following criticism of the 36-month timeline, the junta banned all public demonstrations several months ago.
On Thursday, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) chairman and Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo claimed that Guinea’s ruling military junta has agreed to cut its transition to civilian rule from three to two years.
He said that Guinea’s military junta proposed 36 months’ timeline, but the West African regional bloc succeeded in convincing them to reduce the transition timeline.
But, Ousmane Gaoual Diallo, a Guinean minister and spokesman for the transitional government, told AFP that the government does not confirm the announcement made by the ECOWAS about the duration of the transition in Guinea.
