Alpha Conde (4 March 1938-) was President of Guinea from 21 December 2010 to 5 September 2021, succeeding Sekouba Konate and preceding Mamady Doumbouya.
Biography[]
Alpha Conde was born in Boke, Guinea on 4 March 1938 to parents from Burkina Faso, and he left for France at the age of 15 and served as Executive Coordinator of African National Groups from 1967 to 1975. Conde went on to become a leader of Guinea's political opposition, challenging incumbent president Lansana Conte in the 1993 and 1998 presidential elections and leading the Rally of the Guinean People party. In 2010, Conde won the second round of the presidential election with 52.52% of the vote, and he pledged to strengthen Guinea's democracy and fight corruption. However, he and his son were embroiled in several corruption scandals (mostly involving the mining industry), and he was also suspected of election rigging. Conde also served as Chairperson of the African Union from 30 January 2017 to 28 January 2018. From 2019 to 2020, violent protests broke out against Conde's regime, resulting in over 90 deaths. Conde won re-election in a rigged election in October 2020, resulting in renewed protests across the country. On 5 September 2021, he was arrested and overthrown by the Guinean military in the 2021 Guinean coup d'etat.