FOREIGN POLICY
Guinea’s military government is clamping down on pro-democracy protests with alarming violence.
At least seven people were shot dead and 32 wounded in anti-government demonstrations this month. The junta warned that further dissent would be met with the full weight of the army. It threatened that anti-terrorism laws, including those carrying sentences of life in prison, would be used against people who sought to “intimidate, provoke a situation of terror, create insecurity in the public.”
“We have taken the step of legally requisitioning, as of May 15, 2023, the use of the armed forces to support the police and gendarmerie facing difficulties in maintaining and restoring public order,” Territorial Administration Minister Mory Condé said in a statement read on state TV.
In the latest in a series of small-scale protests against the military government, independent media outlets launched a one-day boycott against the junta last Tuesday. They have threatened to protest on June 1 over the government restricting or blocking access to news sites and popular social media networks.
In a statement, the country’s media associations declared Telecommunications Minister Ousmane Gaoual Diallo the “enemy of the Guinean press.” Guinean internet users have complained that they are unable to access social networks such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, or TikTok without a VPN. Guinea’s press associations also condemned the shuttering of two radio stations owned by Afric Vision group and threats from the authorities to close any media that undermines national unity. Diallo has denied a crackdown on media.
The military government has banned all demonstrations since July 2022 when the country’s capital, Conakry, was brought to a standstill by a pro-democracy rally organized by opposition coalition the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution…
