🇬🇳 Guinea

The earliest of the West African empires on whose fringes Guinea sat grew on trade before falling to the Almoravids. Islam first reached the region in this period through North African traders.

The victory over the Sosso ruler founded the Mali Empire, which absorbed the territories on which Guinea now sits. Mali was ruled by mansas including Kankou Moussa, whose hajj to Mecca in 1324 advertised its wealth.

Songhai prospered until a civil war over succession followed the death of Askia Daoud in 1582. Moroccan invaders destroyed the empire in 1591, after which it fragmented into smaller kingdoms.

Migrant Fulani Muslims founded a theocratic state in central Guinea governed by a written constitution and alternating rulers. It endured until French conquest at the end of the nineteenth century.

Touré built a state in the predominantly Malinké areas of what is now upper Guinea and southwestern Mali. It shifted towards Ivory Coast before French occupation.

French military penetration culminated in the formal creation of the colony. Guinea became a territory within French West Africa administered by a governor general in Dakar, with a lieutenant governor locally.

French forces took the Futa Jallon capital, followed by a definitive treaty in 1897. The action ended the independence of the Fulani Islamic state.

The defeat and capture of Samori Touré in 1898 ended the Wassoulou Empire's nearly two decades of resistance to French expansion and gave France control of what is today Guinea and adjacent areas. The boundaries of the South Rivers were fixed the following year, and frontiers with Sierra Leone, Portuguese Guinea and Liberia were negotiated in the following decades, with the territory organised as French Guinea within French West Africa.

The line linked the coast to Kankan via Kouroussa, opening the interior to trade. It ceased operating in 1995 and had been dismantled by 2007, the rails largely stolen or sold for scrap.

French officials planned to produce large quantities of counterfeit Guinean francs to hyperinflate the economy and to arm opposition figures. The operation was leaked, prompting a series of official Guinean complaints and poisoning early relations with France.

The French Fifth Republic offered its colonies a choice between autonomy within a new French Community or immediate independence. Guinea was alone in rejecting the Community, a decision propelled in part by mass women's mobilisation and Sékou Touré's PDG. The vote triggered abrupt French withdrawal.

Guinea declared itself a sovereign and independent republic on 2 October 1958, days after voters rejected Charles de Gaulle's French Community — the only French African territory to do so — prompting France to withdraw abruptly. It was the first French West African territory to break fully with Paris, and Ahmed Sékou Touré became its first president, leading the country for the next 26 years on a course of autarkic, authoritarian rule.

Touré declared the Democratic Party of Guinea the sole legal party, fusing party and state for the next 24 years. He was re-elected unopposed to four seven-year terms while voters were presented with single lists of PDG candidates for the National Assembly.

Several hundred exiled Guinean opposition fighters, backed by Portuguese forces from Portuguese Guinea, raided Conakry aiming to kill or capture Sékou Touré for his support of the PAIGC. After fighting, the attackers retreated, but the raid entrenched Touré's siege mentality and repression.

Guinea took a seat on the UN Security Council for the 1972–73 term. The election marked a high point of its international visibility during the Touré era.

A declining economy and a ban on private economic transactions provoked anti-government riots begun by women trading in Conakry's Madina Market. The unrest contributed to the partial economic reforms of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The state's official title was changed to reflect its revolutionary socialist orientation under Touré. The name was reversed in 1984 after his death.

Conté denounced the previous regime's human rights record, freeing 250 political prisoners and encouraging some 200,000 exiles to return. He made explicit the turn away from socialism, reorienting Guinea's economic model.

Following the death of first president Ahmed Sékou Touré, the country reverted to the name Republic of Guinea. The change signalled the new regime's break with revolutionary socialism.

Sékou Touré died on 26 March 1984 and was succeeded by interim president Louis Lansana Beavogui, but hours before the PDG was to choose a new leader on 3 April, the colonels took power. Conté became president and Traoré prime minister until December, ending 26 years of PDG rule.

Conté promised civilian government, holding a presidential poll in 1993 and parliamentary elections in 1995, in which his Party of Unity and Progress won 71 of 114 seats. The transition was formal rather than substantive, entrenching Conté's rule under electoral cover.

General Conte organised and won presidential elections in 1993, 1998 and 2003, though all the polls were rigged.

Cross-border incursions in 2000 struck towns in Guinea's south-east, prompting President Lansana Conté to accuse neighbouring leaders of coveting the country's natural resources. Guinea and its neighbours agreed measures to contain the incursions in the years that followed.

Conté organised and won a constitutional referendum extending the presidential mandate. He began a third term in 2003 after elections boycotted by the opposition, deepening the country's authoritarian drift.

The opposition leader was jailed and pardoned eight months later, subsequently spending time in exile in France. His persecution shaped the opposition politics that later brought him to the presidency.

The deal with the Houston-based firm, later partnered with Dana Petroleum and Tullow Oil, opened an offshore tract to exploration. The Sabu-1 well drilled from October 2011 proved not commercially viable on completion in 2012.

A nationwide general strike against Conté's rule resulted in the appointment of a new prime minister. It demonstrated the mobilising power of organised labour against a weakening presidency.

Camara declared himself head of a military junta on 23 December 2008, ending Conté's 24-year rule. His subsequent bid to stand as a presidential candidate, in breach of an earlier pledge, triggered the protests that led to the following year's stadium massacre.

Troops opened fire on an opposition rally at Conakry's 28 September Stadium on 28 September 2009 and were accused of widespread rape and mutilation during the crackdown. Camara was later convicted over the killings and pardoned by President Doumbouya in March 2025.

After an aide shot Camara on 3 December 2009 and Sékouba Konaté assumed control, talks in Ouagadougou on 13–14 January 2010 produced a formal statement of 12 principles promising civilian rule within six months. The accord opened the way to the 2010 elections.

The Anglo-Australian miner and its largest shareholder agreed to jointly develop Rio Tinto's iron ore holdings. Britain's Serious Fraud Office launched an investigation into Rio Tinto's business and mining practices in Guinea in 2017.

President Doumbouya's coalition won 94 of 147 National Assembly seats, and more than 100 with allies, in Guinea's first legislative election since the 2021 coup. Turnout was 52.87 per cent after opposition parties, dissolved in March, boycotted the 31 May vote.

A 6 March 2026 decree dissolved the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea, the Rally of the Guinean People and the Union of Republican Forces, along with 37 smaller parties, and ordered the seizure of their assets ahead of legislative elections.

The arrests in Siguiri, Mandiana and Kankan on 21 March 2026 came amid growing concern over jihadist activity spreading toward Guinea from neighbouring Mali, where armed groups have expanded their reach in recent years.

The soldiers were held from 22 February 2026 in Koudaya, Faranah Region, amid a border dispute with Sierra Leone, before being freed on 27 February following contacts between the two governments.

Guinea's African Union membership, suspended over the 2021 coup, was restored. The reinstatement followed the constitutional referendum and presidential election that formally ended the transition.

The cargo arrived in mid-January 2026, two months after the mine's launch, providing the first proof that Guinea's new mine, railway and port could deliver ore to international markets. Most Simandou output is destined for Chinese steel mills.

The African Union lifted its sanctions on 23 January 2026 and the West African bloc ECOWAS followed on 29 January, both citing Guinea's transition to civilian rule after Doumbouya's election and inauguration as a civilian president.

Legislation encouraged the implementation of the indigenous African N'Ko and Adlam writing systems. The move followed the 2025 constitution's recognition of eight local languages as official alongside French.

Guineans voted in the first election since the 2021 coup, with Doumbouya facing eight other candidates. The Supreme Court validated his landslide win of 86.72% on 5 January 2026, after which ECOWAS lifted Guinea's suspension.

Guineans voted on 28 December 2025 in the first presidential election since the 2021 coup, with eight other candidates on the ballot. The vote marked the culmination of a transition process launched after Doumbouya deposed Alpha Condé.

Guinea launched the mine on 11 November 2025 after a $20 billion investment in the deposit, a 622-kilometre railway and a new deep-water port. At full capacity the project is expected to ship up to 95 million tonnes of iron ore a year.

Operations paused on 2 October 2025 following the deaths, weeks before the project's official launch. Simandou, backed by Rio Tinto, Chinalco and the Guinean state, holds one of the world's largest untapped high-grade iron-ore deposits.

The referendum established a new constitution replacing the 2020 text and marked the first formal step towards civilian rule after the coup. It also set out official languages including Susu, Fulani, Malinke and others alongside French.

Around 90.06 per cent voted yes on 21 September 2025, on a turnout of 91.4 per cent, adopting a charter that extended presidential term limits and reformatted the Senate. The vote was presented as the first formal step toward civilian rule.

The census recorded a population of over 17.5 million across 245,857 square kilometres. Conakry had been considerably expanded before the count, with about 300,000 people transferred from the Kindia Region.

The blast on 18 December 2023 killed 24 people and caused extensive fuel shortages for weeks afterwards. It worsened civil and economic unrest, driving up fuel and travel costs and general price inflation.

At least seven people were killed in anti-government demonstrations across Guinean cities on 11 May 2023. The movement called on the junta to transition the country to democracy.

After gunfire near the presidential palace on 5 September 2021, Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya's special forces unit deposed President Alpha Condé, seized state television, dissolved the government and closed the borders; by 6 September the military controlled the state administration. Condé had secured a disputed third term through a 2020 referendum that removed presidential term limits. The UN, EU, African Union, ECOWAS and La Francophonie denounced the coup and Guinea's memberships in regional bodies were suspended, yet Doumbouya was sworn in as interim president on 1 October 2021.

The first confirmed case was reported on 13 March 2020. By the end of that year Guinea had recorded 13,722 confirmed cases, with 13,141 recoveries and 81 deaths.

Condé claimed a March 2020 constitutional referendum permitted him to run despite the two-term limit, then declared victory in the presidential election. The opposition accused him of fraud, and the disputed result drew extensive international criticism.

Mass civil unrest and violent protests began on 14 October 2019 against proposed constitutional amendments. More than 800 people were killed in the ensuing clashes.

As part of plans to restart iron ore mining at Simandou blocks 1 and 2, the consortium committed to a 650 km heavy-duty railway to the Atlantic coast and some US$20 billion in port investment. An October 2019 feasibility study weighed a shorter alternative route to Buchanan in Liberia.

The government revoked BSGR's licence for two Simandou blocks in 2014 after finding the concession was obtained through bribery, triggering arbitration across three continents. The two sides settled in February 2019, with BSGR keeping a stake in the smaller Zogota deposit.

With more new cases reported in neighbouring states than at home, Guinea sealed its frontiers. The closure disrupted regional trade and movement during the epidemic's peak.

The WHO announced on 25 March 2014 that Guinea had an Ebola outbreak, initially 86 cases and 59 deaths, traced to a toddler in the village of Méliandou who had fallen ill in December 2013. The epidemic spread to Conakry and on to Sierra Leone and Liberia by mid-2014, and the World Health Organization declared an international public health emergency; by November 2015 Guinea had recorded 3,810 cases and 2,536 deaths, and the epidemic ended in 2016.

Following Guinea's first free and competitive legislative elections in 2013, the National Assembly was seated in January 2014. President Conde's cabinet is the first all-civilian government in Guinea, marking a turning point after decades of authoritarian rule.

Elections on 24 September 2013 returned a parliament that had not met since 2008. Condé's Rally of the Guinean People won a plurality of 53 of 114 seats.

Three days of communal violence struck the city of Nzerekore. Further localised violence occurred in 2021 at Kendoumaya in Lower Guinea over a land rights dispute involving a monastery.

Street protests over the transparency of upcoming May elections turned violent, killing nine and injuring around 220, with security forces using live ammunition. The unrest triggered ethnic clashes between Malinke and Fula communities aligned for and against Condé.

Condé defeated Cellou Dalein Diallo in a second round on 7 November 2010, after a disputed first round on 27 June brought allegations of fraud; turnout in the runoff was high and its conduct relatively smooth. The leader of the Rally of the Guinean People took office pledging to reform the security sector and review foreign mining contracts, and the United States re-established strong diplomatic relations.