President accuses civil society of conspiring to destabilise the country

Peaceful Assembly

As reported previously on the Monitor, violent clashes broke out between opposition supporters and security forces in the aftermath of the local election results in February, which were the first local elections to have taken place since 2005. Since then, opposition parties have refused to accept the results and called for further actions. The unrest in the country was further fueled by a teacher's strike, which paralysed the education sector for a month (see below). On 12th March, while opposition organised a day of 'ghost town' in Conakry, thousands of protesters demonstrated in the capital to demand an end to a month-long teachers' strike. In several districts of the capital, youth reportedly erected roadblocks and set fire to tyres, while hundreds of people, mainly women and youth, chanted anti-Condé slogans in front of the presidential palace also to demand the end of the teacher's strike. 

Negotiations between the government and the opposition over the disputed election results, which started in April, broke down on 11th May, with the opposition once again calling for renewed protests. On 14th May, another 'ghost town' day organised by the opposition took place in Conakry. The unrest during the protests left at least 15 people dead in clashes between security forces and opposition and government supporters.

The teachers' strike, which had closed down schools for a month, ended on 13th March when the main education trade union - Syndicat libre des enseignants et chercheurs de Guinée (Union of Teachers and Researchers of Guinea) signed an agreement with the government to end the month-long strike. The government agreed to an increase in teachers' wages and to other demands of the trade union, including that no participant in the strike could be prosecuted or punished.  As reported previously on the Monitor, the strike initially started in November 2017, and another strike was announced on 12th February. 

Association

During a press conference on 15th May, a coalition of civil society groups - Coalition des Acteurs Sociaux pour la Consolidation des Acquis Démocratiques (C.A.S.C.A.D) - expressed solidarity with Abdourahmane Sanoh, president of Plateforme nationale des Citoyens Unis pour le Développement (National Platform of United Citizens for Development - PCUD) and other civil society actors who have been accused by President Alpha Condé of conspiring to destabilise the country due to their support of the teachers' strike (see under Peaceful Assembly).

Expression

On 12th March, during the protests described under Peaceful Assembly, a group of unidentified perpetrators attacked the offices of media group Hadafo Média in Conakry by throwing projectiles and breaking the office windows. Windows of several cars parked in the building were reportedly also broken.