JUST IN: Guinea’s President Just Fired 173 Soldiers – Including the Guy Who Helped Him Seize Power
Guinea’s President Mamadi Doumbouya has just kicked more than 170 soldiers out of the army for “desertion.” And one of them isn’t just any officer – it’s a man who stood right beside him during the 2021 coup that put him in power.
The announcement came Monday evening on state television. General Amara Camara, the president’s spokesman, read out a decree naming 173 military personnel who are now being removed from the armed forces. They came from all over – regular army units, the gendarmerie, the elite Special Forces Group, and the airborne battalion. No one explained exactly when or how these “desertions” supposedly happened.
The name that stood out most was Michel Lamah. He was part of the same Special Forces unit Doumbouya once commanded. Back in September 2021, when troops stormed the presidential palace and arrested Alpha Condé, Lamah was the one photographed in the vehicle carrying the deposed president. That image went everywhere. Now, five years later, he’s been dismissed along with the others.
Doumbouya is 41. He led that 2021 coup, promised he wouldn’t run for president, and said he’d hand power back to civilians. Then he changed his mind, ran in the December 2025 election, and won by a landslide. A lot of people watching this latest move see it as him tightening his grip – making sure no one inside the military can challenge him.
The Defence Ministry later said the legal reason is simple: under military rules, if a soldier goes missing without permission for six days or more in peacetime, it counts as desertion.
That’s the official line, anyway. Whether this is really about desertion or about cleaning house is another question entirely.
We’ll keep following this one.