Guinea: Background and Relations with the United States

Alexis Arieff Analyst in African Affairs

Nicolas Cook Specialist in African Affairs

Guinea is a former French colony on West Africa's Atlantic coast, with a population of about 10 million. It is rich in natural resources but characterized by widespread poverty and limited socioeconomic development. While Guinea has experienced regular episodes of internal political turmoil, it was considered a locus of relative stability during much of the past two decades, a period during which each of its six neighbors suffered one or more armed internal conflicts. At the same time, democratic progress was limited, while popular discontent with the government rose along with instability within the sizable armed forces.

The past two years have seen a series of deep changes in Guinea's political landscape, a new experience for a country that had only two presidents in the first fifty years after independence in 1958. On June 27, 2010, Guineans voted in the country's first presidential election organized by an independent electoral commission and without an incumbent candidate. A run-off vote between two front-runner candidates is slated for early August, after being briefly postponed as a result of legal challenges to the first-round results. The presidential election is expected to bring an end to a military-led transitional government, formed in early 2010, which in turn succeeded a military junta that seized power in December 2008 upon the death of longtime president Lansana Conté. The junta dissolved the constitution and legislature, appointed a civilian prime minister, and promised to hold presidential and legislative elections. Elections were repeatedly postponed, however. On September 28, 2009, Guinean security forces opened fire on thousands of civilian protesters in the capital, Conakry, killing at least 150 and wounding many more.

On December 3, 2009, junta leader Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara was evacuated from the country after he was shot and wounded by his chief bodyguard. Dadis Camara's exit paved the way for the formation of the transitional government, which is headed by Gen. Sekouba Konaté, a senior junta official. A longtime opposition leader, Jean-Marie Doré, serves as prime minister.

The United States suspended some development aid and all security assistance to Guinea in the wake of the 2008 coup. Neither U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) governance and humanitarian assistance programs, which comprised a substantial portion of the U.S. aid budget in Guinea before the coup, nor U.S. contributions toward Guinea's electoral process were affected by the suspension. In response to the military crackdown on opposition supporters in September 2009, the United States called for Dadis Camara to step down and announced targeted travel restrictions against CNDD members and selected associates. However, some restrictions on security assistance were rolled back during the transitional government, and bilateral aid is expected to increase if the transition to elected government is completed.

Related legislation during the 111th Congress includes H.Res. 1013 (Ros-Lehtinen) and S.Res. 345 (Boxer). This report focuses on recent events, U.S.-Guinea bilateral relations, and U.S. policy and assistance. It also provides background on Guinean history and politics. For further analysis of recent events, see CRS Report R41200, Guinea's New Transitional Government: Emerging Issues for U.S. Policy, by Alexis Arieff.


Date of Report: July 19, 2010
Number of Pages: 34
Order Number: R40703
 Price: $29.95


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