James Tasamba
22 October 2021•Update: 22 October 2021
KIGALI, Rwanda
Guinea’s coup leaders have unveiled their first line-up of government ministers, including a former army general and three people who served under ousted President Alpha Conde.
Aboubacar Sidiki Camara, an ex-army officer regarded as coup leader and interim President Mamadi Doumbouya’s mentor, has been named as the transitional defense minister, according to a decree read on state television late on Thursday.
Camara, known by the nickname “Idi Amin” after the Ugandan leader, previously served as chief of staff in Guinea’s Defense Ministry and also as the country’s ambassador to Cuba.
In other appointments, Bachir Diallo, a former defense attache in Algeria, was made the security and civil protection minister.
Louopou Lamah, previously the national director of foreign trade, was appointed as the environment and sustainable development minister.
Abdourahmane Sike Camara, a former adviser, was named secretary-general of the government, a portfolio that equals the position of a minister.
Doumbouya overthrew Conde on Sep. 5 and was sworn in as interim president by the Supreme Court on Oct. 1.
He made former civil servant Mohamed Beavogui the prime minister of the transitional government a week later.
Conde, 83, became Guinea’s first democratically elected president in 2010 and was re-elected in 2015.
Last year, he pushed through constitutional changes that allowed him to run for a controversial third term, which he won in an election dismissed as a sham by the opposition.
Mass demonstrations, in which dozens of protesters were reportedly killed, erupted after the vote, paving the way for his eventual ouster.
