The optics play to old stereotypes about Africa: men in fatigues holding the deposed president who has outlasted his stay. In 2010, Alpha Condé became Guinea's first civilian president to win through the ballot box. We ask if the once courageous opposition leader lost his way when he saw fit to lift term limits to hang on to power.
We also ask about the new strongman in Conakry, former French legionnaire Mamady Doumbouya, a colossus who spoke to FRANCE 24 draped in the Guinean flag. What to make of his promise of a swift transition?
And what to make of the spate of coups, first in other former French colonies Mali and Chad and now in a nation that is resource-rich in water, forests and precious minerals but beset by poverty, mismanagement and ethnic rivalries that run deep? What will it take to break the stereotypes of old in what should be a regional powerhouse?
Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Juliette Laurain and Léopoldine Iribarren.
