Guinea's Junta dissolves 40 Political Parties in Crackdown on Opposition

Guinean President Mamadi Doumbouya and the first lady Lauriane Doumbouya in Conakry, Guinea, on December 28, 2025 (Source: Citizen Digital).

On the night of Friday March 6th, Guinea's military Junta sent out a shocking decree dissolving 40 political parties, including the country’s three main opposition parties. The move was quickly condemned by civil society leaders as a move towards a one-party state under President Mamady Doumbouya.

The decree, signed by Guinea's Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, claimed that the parties had forced the government's hand through a "failure to fulfill their obligations." Aside from barring the parties, the decree also placed all party assets under sequestration, with a curator in charge of their transfer, though it remains unclear to whom these assets will be handed over to.

The dissolved organizations include the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG), led by exiled opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo, the Rally of the People of Guinea (RPG), the party of exiled former president Alpha Condé and the Union of Republican Forces (UFR). The decree legally dissolves the organizations and prohibits any political activity or use of their acronyms, logos, or symbols. 

The move comes fewer than two months after Doumbouya was sworn in as president on January 17, following a December election from which all major opposition leaders were barred from standing. The 41-year-old first seized power in a September 2021 coup that toppled Condé, Guinea's first freely elected president, and has since banned protests, curtailed civil liberties, and driven political opponents into arrest, trial, or exile. A new constitution, approved by referendum in September 2025, enabled junta members to contest elections while extending presidential terms from five to seven years, renewable once.

Reaction from civil society was immediate. Ibrahima Diallo, a leader of the pro-democracy National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC), said the decree had "formalized a dictatorship now established as the mode of governance." He also claimed that the country was "sinking into profound uncertainty." Souleymane de Souza Konate, communications coordinator for the UFDG, accused the government of crossing "all red lines" in what he described as a final move toward single-party rule.

However, the dissolution of the parties is not the only pressure to which the government's opponents are being subjected. There has been a series of disappearances and kidnappings mainly targeting the relatives of the exiled critics. Two key activists of the FNDC, Oumar Sylla, also known as Fonike Mengue, and Mamadou Billo Bah, have gone into hiding since July 2024. This week, some relatives of the former Minister of Condé, Tibou Kamara, were kidnapped. In November, four relatives of the exiled musician and opposition leader Elie Kamano were abducted, and the relative of the exiled journalist Mamoudou Babila Keita was taken in September.

The crackdown unfolds in one of West Africa's most resource-endowed nations, yet one where more than half the population lives below the poverty line, according to World Bank figures for 2024. Since independence in 1958, Guinea has rarely known anything other than military or authoritarian rule. With 40 parties now dissolved and its most prominent opposition leaders imprisoned or in exile, that pattern shows no sign of breaking.