The leader of Guinea’s recent coup told a delegation of West African leaders he was not concerned about new sanctions imposed by the regional bloc to pressure a swift transition to constitutional rule, the junta’s spokesman said.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has agreed to freeze the financial assets of the junta and their relatives and bar them from travelling in response to the Sept. 5 ouster of President Alpha Conde.
Coup leader Mamady Doumbouya has shrugged off the move, telling high-level ECOWAS envoys that “as soldiers, their work is in Guinea and there is nothing to freeze in their accounts,” junta spokesman Amara Camara said at a briefing.
The comment was made at talks between Doumbouya and the Ivorian and Ghanaian presidents, Alassane Ouattara and Nana Akufo-Addo, who visited Conakry in an unsuccessful effort to secure Conde’s release.
The bloc’s decision to impose sanctions reflects members’ desire to deter a further democratic backslide in the region after four military-led coups in West and Central Africa since last year.
They have demanded a six-month transition in Guinea. In response, Doumbouya told the delegation the will of the Guinean people should be taken into account, Camara said.
ECOWAS’s credibility in Guinea has been strained since 2018, when the bloc failed to condemn Conde for running for a third term in office last year, despite a law declaring that presidents must step down after two.
Doumbouya and other soldiers behind the coup have said they ousted Conde because of concerns about poverty and corruption.