The former chief of staff of the Guinean army and former number two in the ruling junta died in detention from probable consequences of psychological trauma and “prolonged stress”announced military justice on Wednesday June 26.
General Sadiba Koulibaly, second in command to General Mamadi Doumbouya during the September 2021 coup, was sentenced on June 14 to five years in prison for desertion and illegal possession of weapons by a military court. He died on June 24, the military prosecutor’s office announced in a statement which suggested he had previously been transferred to hospital.
The autopsy ordered by the military justice at the Ignace-Deen hospital in Conakry concludes that “the death could be attributable to significant psychotrauma and prolonged stress” which caused a cardiac arrest, specifies the press release. His defenders denounced his trial, calling it a conspiracy.
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His death occurs in a period of strong internal tension, at a time when the opposition is criticizing an authoritarian and solitary exercise of power by General Mamadi Doumbouya, now inaugurated president.
The junta had committed under international pressure to hand over power to elected civilians by the end of 2024, but this transfer has now been postponed until an uncertain horizon.
After the 2021 putsch, General Koulibaly was appointed chief of staff of the army, a position he held until May 2023. Then becoming charge d’affaires at the Guinean embassy in Cuba, he had returned to Guinea in May in order, according to him, to demand payment of the salaries of staff at the diplomatic mission. He was arrested on June 4 on the grounds that his superiors had not authorized his trip and that he had abandoned his post. Weapons were seized from his home, according to the prosecution.
