Guinea’s authorities on Wednesday said an interim legislature tasked with deciding when to restore civilian rule in the country following last year’s coup will hold its first session on Saturday, reported Eye Witness News.
The West African country’s ruling military, which seized power in September, announced the formation of the National Transitional Council on state television on Tuesday evening.
According to a statement, the 81-member body will draw up a new constitution and propose the date of the end of the transition. The inaugural ceremony will take place in the capital Conakry on Saturday.
Guinea’s strongman Colonel Mamady Doumbouya ousted elected president Alpha Conde in a coup on September 5. The military junta dissolved the government and institutions and replaced ministers, governors, and prefects with administrators and soldiers.
In October, Doumbouya appointed Mohamed Beavogui, a former UN under-secretary-general, as Guinea’s transitional prime minister.
The former Special Forces commander has vowed to restore civilian rule in Guinea but has so far refused to specify the length of the transition period.
Notably, there is a mounting international concern at a wave of military coups in West Africa. The latest occurred in Burkina Faso last month, while an attempted coup occurred on Tuesday in Guinea-Bissau.
On January 24, Burkina Faso’s army announced it had deposed President Roch Marc Christian Kabore and taken control of the country. Then on Tuesday, Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embalo said that armed men had mounted a coup attempt, attacking a government building while he was inside.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is due to meet in Ghana’s capital Accra on Thursday to discuss the situation in the coup-hot countries.
West Africa’s regional bloc has previously urged Guinea’s military government to swiftly restore civilian rule and has imposed sanctions on individual junta members. It has called for elections to be held within six months.
