Guinea’s leader defends coups in Africa and rebuffs the West, saying things must change

recent coups in Africa are attempts by militaries to save ir countries from presidents’ “broken promises,” he of Guinea’s junta said Thursday as he rebuffed West for boxing in continent of more than 1 billion people.

Col. Mami Doumbouya, who was sworn in as Guinea’s interim president following coup in 2021, told U.N. General Assembly that beyond condemning coups, global leers must also “look to and dress deep-rooted causes.”

“ putschist is t only person who takes up arms to overthrow a regime,” he told garing of world leers in New York. “I want us all to be well aware of fact that real putschists, most numerous, are those who avoid any condemnation — y are those … who cheat to manipulate text of constitution in order to stay in power eternally.”

Guinea is one of several nations in West and Central Africa that have experienced eight coups since 2020, including two – Niger and Gabon – in recent months. military takeovers, sometimes celebrated by citizens in those countries and condemned by international organizations and foreign countries, have raised concern about stability of continent, whose young population of at least 1.3 billion is set to double by 2050 and make up a quarter of planet’s people.

Doumbouya accused some leers in Africa of clinging to power by any means — often including amending constitution — to detriment of ir people.

In Guinea, he said he led soldiers to depose n-President Alpha Conde in September 2021 coup to prevent country from “slipping into complete chaos.” He said situation was similar in or countries hit by coups and was a result of “broken promises, lethargy of people and leers tampering with constitutions with sole concern of remaining in power to detriment of collective well-being.”

Doumbouya also rebuffed attempts by West and or developed countries to intervene in Africa’s political challenges, saying that Africans are “exhausted by categorizations with which everyone wants to box us in.”

“We Africans are insulted by boxes, categories which sometimes place us under influence of Americans, sometimes under that of British, French, Chinese and Turks,” Guinean leer said. “Today, African people are more awake than ever and more than ever determined to take ir destiny into ir own hands.”

While Guinean leer defended coups in his country and elsewhere, concerns remain about effectiveness of such military takeovers in dressing challenges y said me m “intervene.”

In Mali, where soldiers have been in power since 2020, Islamic State group almost doubled territory it controls in less than a year, according to U.N. experts. And in Burkina Faso, which recorded two coups in 2020, ecomic growth slowed to 2.5% in 2022 after a robust 6.9% year before.

“Military coups are wrong, as is any tilted civilian political arrangement that perpetuates injustice,” said Nigerian President Bola Tinubu. As leer of West Africa’s regional bloc of ECOWAS, he is leing efforts of neighbors to reverse coup in region.

“ wave crossing parts of Africa does t demonstrate favor towards coups,” He said. “It is a demand for solutions to perennial problems.”