The Guinea Board tells the central bank to freeze government accounts

CONAKRY, Sept. 9 (Reuters) – Guinea’s military junta, which took power over the weekend, said on Thursday it had ordered the central bank and other banks to freeze all government accounts.

On Sunday, a group of special forces soldiers said they ousted President Alpha Conde over concerns about poverty and endemic corruption.

The bank freeze was aimed at “securing state assets,” a board spokesman told the national broadcaster.

“This includes public administrative and commercial establishments of all ministries and the presidency, presidential programs and projects, members of the outgoing government, as well as senior officials and administrators of state financial institutions,” the spokesman said.

A mining boom drove strong economic growth during Conde’s decade in power, but polls suggest the foxes thought corruption had risen in recent years, while dissatisfaction with the economy and living conditions it has also increased.

A delegation of West African leaders was in Guinea on Friday to assess the situation following the coup that has raised fears of a backlash over military rule in the region.

Leaders of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) condemned the coup on Wednesday and called on the military to release Conde, who was arrested during the takeover. . Read more

They also suspended Guinea’s membership in ECOWAS, the region’s main political and economic group, but ceased to be sanctions.

ECOWAS President Jean-Claude Kassi Brou and Ghana’s Foreign Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchway will lead the bloc’s delegation to Guinea, but the bloc provided few details.

A senior regional official said ECOWAS wanted the Board to appoint the “credible” civilian prime minister as soon as possible to help lead Guinea towards constitutional order.

The bloc was due to win in the Guinean capital, Conakry, on Thursday, but two Guinean board sources said the delegation was delayed until Friday.

ECOWAS did not immediately respond to calls for comment.

He could face a challenge to try to influence events in Guinea after fighting to impose his will in Mali, also in West Africa, where two coups since August 2020 have left military leader Assimi Goita at the helm despite repeated ECOWAS warnings.

These two coups and another in Chad in April have renewed concerns about the return of military government in a region that had advanced toward multiparty democracy since the 1990s.

Life in the capital Conakry has begun to return to normal, with traffic and street vendors clogging the streets.

The only roads that still controlled military controls were those that led to the Kaloum Peninsula, the capital’s administrative center and the seat of the presidential palace.

Fears that the power struggle could hinder the production of bauxite, a mineral used to make aluminum in Guinea, have begun to wane. The country’s main foreign operators say they have continued to work without interruption.

Additional reports by Camillus Eboh; Written by Cooper Inveen; Edited by Timothy Heritage, Steve Orlofsky and Richard Pullin

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