In news–Recently, Aluminum prices rose to their highest level in 10 years after a military coup in mineral-rich Guinea threatened to snarl the lightweight metal’s supply chain.
Guinea Coup & reasons for it:
- It is a government takeover by the armed forces of Guinea that occurred on 5 September 2021.
- It resulted in the capture of the country’s President Alpha Condé after gunfire in the capital, Conakry.
- The unrest may have started after the dismissal of a senior commander in the special forces – provoking some of its highly trained members to rebel.
- After several decades of authoritarian rule in Guinea, Condé was the country’s first democratically elected leader.
- In 2020, Condé changed the constitution by referendum to allow himself to secure a third term, despite the controversial change sparking the 2019–2020 Guinean protests.
- Guinea’s coup is the fourth time West Africa has witnessed an attempt to undermine democracy in the region since August 2020.
- There have been two military takeovers in Mali and a failed attempt in Niger.
Guinea-
- Guinea is a country in West Africa, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean.
- It’s known for the Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve, in the southeast.
- The reserve protects a forested mountain range rich in native plants and animals, including chimpanzees and the viviparous toad.
- On the coast, the capital city, Conakry, is home to the modern Grand Mosque and the National Museum, with its regional artifacts.
- The former French colony is the only Francophone state on the continent to have rejected in 1958 the Franco-African community proposed by then French President Charles de Gaulle.
- Instead, the country plumped for independence and installed a socialist regime.
Guinea, which borders Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, is 80 percent Muslim but is made up of numerous ethnic groups, the main two being the Fulani and the Malinkes.
- It is notably one of the world’s top producers of bauxite, the chief mineral used in the production of aluminium but also a producer of iron, gold, diamonds and oil.
- Agriculture is the main source of employment.
- Guinea has among the world’s highest incidences of female genital mutilation (FGM).
Source: The Hindu
