Colonel Mamady Doumbouya appears on TV to announce the dissolution of Guinea’s government in Conarky Sept. 5, 2021. (Source: Screen shot by military junta sent to media.)
By Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES
WASHINGTON DC – The Pentagon denied Monday that any U.S. forces were involved in the recent military coup in West African nation Guinea. The New York Times reported that U.S. military were training the Guinean soldiers who took off to stage a coup Sunday September 5. Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, the leader of the coup d’etat that removed President Alpha Conde’s government in Guinea, participated in a U.S.-led military exercise known as Flintlock in Burkina Faso in 2019. The Pentagon acknowledged that U.S. was engaged in a joint training effort with the Guinea Special Operations Forces four hours away from Conakry when separately in that city the military seizure of power occurred. However, the Pentagon’s press secretary told reporters at a press briefing Monday the U.S. military was not implicated in the coup.
“…there was no involvement, …from U.S. forces with respect to the activities there. And we obviously share the U.S. government’s condemnation of the — of this — of this coup in Guinea. The military seizure of power is inconsistent with U.S. military training and education.”
-Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby Sept. 13, 2021
(Photo by Gary Raynaldo / ©Diplomatic Times) Pentagon press secretary John Kirby briefs reporters at the Pentagon in Washington D.C.)
U.S. Department of Defense Suspends Military Training to Guinean Armed Forces After Coup
The Pentagon spokesman said the Department of Defense is “carefully” reviewing the situation on the ground for any potential impacts on U.S. military assistance. “And until that review is complete there is going to be no further training or support to the Guinean Armed Forces.”
A team of a dozen Green Berets had been in Guinea since mid-July to train around 100 soldiers in a special forces unit led by Colonel Doumbouya. US officials said they were investigating reports that Colonel Doumbouya and his fellow coup plotters left in an armed convoy from that same base early on Sunday September 5, while their instructors slept, the NY Times reported.
Guinea’s deposed President Alpha Conde appears in an unknown location after the coup that toppled him from power. (Video screenshot from Guinean television)
Appearing on State TV, Colonel Doumbouya released a list of grievances against Condé’s government, including “the trampling of citizens’ rights, the disrespect for democratic principles, the outrageous politicization of public administration, financial mismanagement, poverty and endemic corruption.”
