Guinea's President Mamadi Doumbouya has dismissed 173 soldiers for alleged desertion, including Colonel Michel Lamah, who took part in the 2021 coup that brought Doumbouya to power. The move is widely seen as an effort by the president to tighten his grip on the military and pre-empt any challenges to his authority, coming just months after he won a landslide election victory in December that cemented his transition from junta leader to civilian president.

The dismissals were announced in a decree read out on state television by presidential spokesman Gen Amara Camara, who gave no details of the alleged desertions. Col Lamah, a former member of Doumbouya's elite Special Forces Group, was pictured escorting deposed President Alpha Condé after troops stormed the presidential palace in September 2021. Since the coup, Guinea has seen media closures, banned protests and suspended political parties, with two major opposition groups excluded from last year's vote, in which Doumbouya secured 87% of the ballot.