Guinea military government names Mohamed Beavogui as PM

Guinea’s military government has named Mohamed Beavogui, a former civil servant and expert in agricultural finance, as prime minister to preside over a promised transition back to democratic rule following last month’s coup.

Beavogui, whose nomination was announced on Wednesday on national television, had a prestigious career with international organisations, including the United Nations, but has no national government experience – potentially distancing him from the Guinean political infighting of recent years.

The 68-year-old engineering graduate and son of a diplomat is an expert in agricultural development financing and risk management.

Beavogui is also the nephew of Diallo Telli, a celebrated Guinean diplomat who served as the first secretary-general of the Organisation of African Unity, the predecessor to the African Union, and was killed by the government of military ruler Sekou Toure in 1977.

Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya, who led the September 5 coup that overthrew President Alpha Conde, was inaugurated as interim president last week for a transition period of unspecified length. In a speech, he outlined his “commitment” that neither he nor any member of the military government would stand in any future elections that the military has promised to organise after the transition period.

His administration’s mission, Doumbouya said, was to “refound the state” by drafting a new constitution, fighting corruption, reforming the electoral system and then organising “free, credible and transparent” elections.

The coup against Conde, who is being held at an undisclosed location, was the fourth in West and Central Africa since last year, following two in Mali and one in Chad. The deposed leader is being held at an undisclosed location.

West African states, fearing a contagion effect across the region, agreed last month to impose sanctions on members of the military government and their relatives.

Conde became Guinea’s first democratically elected president in 2010 and was re-elected in 2015. But last year he pushed through a controversial new constitution that allowed him to run for a third term in October 2020.

The move sparked mass demonstrations in which dozens of protesters were killed. Conde won re-election but the political opposition maintained the poll was a sham.