Guinea transition

Guinea’s interim government was successful in holding elections on June 29 without violence — considered the country’s first free vote since independence from France in 1958. The interim government had taken power after the junta run by Captain Camara fell apart in January 2010. 

Camara’s junta government was blamed for the massacre at a stadium of protesters in Conakry on Sept. 28, 2009, that killed at least 28 — rights groups claim as many as 150 — amid other atrocities (rape and beatings) against civilians by military personnel.

Captain Camara received a head wound during an assassination attempt on Dec. 3, 2009. He fled the country in January and the interim government was appointed. The US Department of State warns that the political situation in Guinea remains unpredictable and the potential for violence persists.