The lines are beginning to move following the mediation of religious leaders that began on March 11.
After convincing the Guinean ‘Forces Vives’ (CSOs) to postpone the street demonstration scheduled for March 20, 2023, in Conakry, the religious leaders are scoring new points.
Thanks to their mediation, the proceedings against the coordinator of the Forum des Forces Sociales, who was arrested on March 9 and released the same day, were simply dropped.
His release was one of the demands of the Guinean forces during their first meeting with government authorities under the aegis of the Imam of the Grand Faisal Mosque, Elhadj Mamadou Saliou Camara and the Archbishop of Conakry, Monsignor Vincent Koulibaly. The latter had obtained the postponement of the marches of March 9 and 15.
On Monday, March 20, a new meeting took place between the protagonists under the supervision of the same mediators. Commitments were made by the head of government on some of the demands of the ‘Forces Vives”,
such as the release of civil society actors incarcerated since August 2022 or the end of legal proceedings against some political leaders for supporting the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC), a citizen’s movement dissolved by the transitional authorities.
Speaking on a local radio station on Saturday, March 25, Justice Minister Alphonse Charles Wright said that Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG) Vice President Fode Oussou Fofana, who has been prevented from leaving the country since December 17, 2022 by the courts, will be able to keep his medical appointment in France.
According to our information, Prime Minister Dr. Bernard GOUMOU is studying other demands of the forces, including the release of civil society actors, notably FNDC leaders Oumar Sylla alias Fonike Mengué, Ibrahima Diallo and Mamadou Billo Bah, all of whom are being held in Conakry’s central prison.
ASD/ac/fss/abj/APA