Nearly five years after staging a military coup, president of gold-rich Guinea sacks officer who helped him seize power along with 173 other soldiers

Guinea’s President Mamadi Doumbouya has dismissed 173 military personnel for “desertion”, including Michel Lamah, an officer who took part in the September 2021 coup that brought him to power.

The dismissals were announced in a presidential decree broadcast on state television on Monday, August 24, in one of the broadest military shake-ups since Doumbouya came to power.

Gen Amara Camara, minister secretary-general of the presidency, read the decree, which removed 173 personnel drawn from several branches of the armed forces.

The order cited “desertion” as the reason for the dismissals but did not specify when the affected personnel abandoned their posts or the circumstances surrounding the cases.

The move comes as Doumbouya consolidates his hold on power nearly five years after the coup, amid a surge in gold, bauxite and iron ore activity that is reshaping Guinea’s economic outlook.