DAKAR, Senegal: Shots were fired late Thursday near the presidential palace in Guinea ‘s capital Conakry, and the army briefly locked down the city center and evacuated it.
Local journalist Fode Toure, who was a few hundred meters from the presidential palace, told The Associated Press he heard gunshots and saw people running away in panic. An AP reporter near the palace saw heavily armed soldiers patrolling the streets.
A diplomatic official close to Guinea’s leader told the AP that 11 dissident soldiers opened fire on the special forces around the presidential palace, but they were overpowered by the special forces. Three of the assailants were killed and eight others arrested, he said, adding that the situation was under control. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to reporters.
The official said the soldiers were loyal to Col. Celestin Bilivogui, who disappeared almost a year ago in mysterious conditions following his arrest by the special forces. Bilivogui was found dead on Wednesday, his family and lawyers said.
The lockdown of the center of Conakry was later lifted.
The ruling junta denied that any gunshots took place calling it a “crazy” and “fabricated” rumor in a statement read on national television. It urged residents of the city center to go about their business.
The West African nation has been led by a military regime since soldiers ousted President Alpha Conde in 2021. The West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS has pushed for a quick transition back to civilian rule and elections are scheduled for 2025.
Col. Mamadi Doumbouya, the country’s leader, overthrew the president three years ago, saying he was preventing Guinea from slipping into chaos and chastised the previous government for broken promises.
However, since coming to power he’s been criticized for being no better than his predecessor. In February, military leaders dissolved the government without explanation, saying a new one will be appointed.
Doumbouya has rebuffed attempts by the West and other developed countries to intervene in Africa’s political challenges, saying Africans are “exhausted by the categorizations with which everyone wants to box us in.”
Several West African nations including Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have had coups that installed military juntas. They have severed or scaled back long-standing military ties with Western powers in favor of security support from Russia.
Gunfire erupts near Guinea’s presidential palace and the military locks down the area
https://arab.news/468fm
Gunfire erupts near Guinea’s presidential palace and the military locks down the area
- 11 dissident soldiers opened fire on special forces guarding the presidential palace, but they were overpowered
- The West African nation has been led by a military regime since soldiers ousted President Alpha Conde in 2021
Youth voters take center stage in Bangladesh election after student-led regime change
- About 45% of Bangladeshis eligible to vote in Thursday’s election are aged 18-33
- Election follows 18 months of reforms after the end of Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule
DHAKA: When he goes to the polls on Thursday, Atikur Rahman Toha will vote for the first time, believing that this election can bring democratic change to Bangladesh.
A philosophy student at Dhaka University, Toha was already eligible to vote in the 2024 poll but, like many others, he opted out.
“I didn’t feel motivated to even go to vote,” he said. “That was a truly one-sided election. The election system was fully corrupted. That’s why I felt demotivated. But this time I am truly excited to exercise my voting rights for the first time.”
The January 2024 vote was widely criticized by both domestic and international observers and marred by a crackdown on the opposition and allegations of voter fraud.
But the victory of the Awami League of ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was short-lived, as a few months later the government was ousted by a student-led uprising, which ended the 15-year rule of Bangladesh’s longest-serving leader.
The interim administration, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, took control in August 2024 and prepared a series of reforms to restructure the country’s political and institutional framework and organize the upcoming vote.
About 127.7 million Bangladeshis are eligible to cast their ballots, according to Election Commission data, with nearly a third of them, or 40.4 million, aged 18-29. Another 16.9 million are 30-33, making it a youth–dominated poll, with the voters hopeful the outcome will help continue the momentum of the 2024 student-led uprising.
“We haven’t yet fully transitioned into a democratic process. And there is no fully stable situation in the country,” Toha said. “After the election we truly hope that the situation will change.”
For Rawnak Jahan Rakamoni, also a Dhaka University student, who is graduating in information science, voting this time meant that her voice would count.
“We are feeling that we are heard, we will be heard, our opinion will matter,” she said.
“I think it is a very important moment for our country, because after many years of controversial elections, people are finally getting a chance to exercise their voting rights and people are hoping that this election will be more meaningful and credible. This should be a fair election.”
But despite the much wider representation than before, the upcoming vote will not be entirely inclusive in the absence of the Awami League, which still retains a significant foothold.
The Election Commission last year barred Hasina’s party from contesting the next national elections, after the government banned Awami League’s activities citing national security threats and a war crimes investigation against the party’s top leadership.
The UN Human Rights Office has estimated that between July 15 and Aug. 5, 2024 the former government and its security and intelligence apparatus, together with “violent elements” linked to the Awami League, “engaged systematically in serious human rights violations and abuses in a coordinated effort to suppress the protest movement.”
It estimated that at least 1,400 people were killed during the protests, with the majority shot dead from military rifles.
Rezwan Ahmed Rifat, a law student, wanted the new government to “ensure justice for the victims of the July (uprising), enforced disappearances, and other forms of torture” carried out by the previous regime.
The two main parties out of the 51 contesting Thursday’s vote are the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami. Jamaat, which in 2013 was banned from political participation by Hasina’s government, heads an 11-party alliance, including the National Citizen Party formed by student leaders from the 2024 movement.
“I see this election as a turning point of our country’s democratic journey … It’s not just a normal election,” said Falguni Ahmed, a psychology student who will head to the polls convinced that no matter who wins, it will result in the “democratic accountability” of the next government.
Ahmed added: “People are not voting only for their leaders; they are also voting for the restoration of democratic credibility. That’s why this election is very different.”
