West Africa is suffering bustle and violent political change right now. After Mali earlier this year, this is the turn of Guinea to undergo a coup that puts all the country, one of the less developed in Africa and in the world despite massive resources, in deep uncertainty for the next weeks and months.

President Apha Condé was captured by the rebels who set up the coup without any resistance on September 5. The chief of those special forces, Mamady Doumbouya, immediately dissolved the constitution (the new one was adopted by Alpha Condé in 2020 to be able to seek a third presidential term), but also the government and institutions. The militaries, who say they wish to favor concertation in order to create a new government of national union, justified their overthrowing of president Alpha Condé to end up bribery, financial muddle and poverty.

In this chaos, international pressure did not take time to be put on the illegitimate power who is still detaining the president. The African Union decided to suspend Guinea, as well as the Economic Community of West African States. A delegation of the ECOWAS flied to Guinea with foreign secretaries and the president of the commission Kassi Brou. They met the fallen president and had a conversation with the leader of the rebels, but conclusions and decisions still need to be revealed and we do not know what will be done in the next few days.

If West African rulers all condemned the coup and demanded a return of constitutional order, no economic sanction was taken, and time seems to be devoted to discussions and negotiations before acting tough. As always in that particular case, the militaries in power promise a lot, but are they going to keep their promise of forming a new government without keeping power? Let us hope that their growing popularity witnessed in some streets of Conakry will not give them some ideas.