Guinea

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Formerly French Guinea, it achieved independence in 1958. Guinea has a history of military coups d'état. After decades of authoritarian rule, it held its first democratic election in 2010. As it continued to hold multi-party elections, the country still faces ethnic conflicts, corruption, and abuses by the military and police. In 2011, the United States government claimed that torture by security forces and abuse of women and children (including female genital mutilation) were ongoing human rights issues. In 2021, a military faction overthrew president Alpha Condé and suspended the constitution.

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Name

Guinea is named after the Guinea region, which lies along the Gulf of Guinea. It stretches north through the forested tropical regions and ends at the Sahel. The English term "Guinea" comes directly from the Portuguese word Guiné which emerged in the mid-15th century to refer to the lands inhabited by the Guineus, a generic term for the African peoples south of the Senegal River, in contrast to the "tawny" Zenaga Berbers above it, whom they called Azengues or Moors.

In 1978, the official name became the "People's Revolutionary Republic of Guinea". In 1984, the country was renamed the "Republic of Guinea" after the death of the first president, Ahmed Sékou Touré.

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History

The land that is now Guinea either bordered or was situated within a series of historic African empires before the French arrived in the 1890s and claimed the terrain as part of colonial French West Africa. Guinea declared independence from France on 2 October 1958. From independence until the presidential election of 2010, Guinea was governed by multiple autocratic rulers.

What is now Guinea sat on the fringes of various West African empires. The earliest, the Ghana Empire, grew on trade and ultimately fell after repeated incursions of the Almoravids.

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Geography

Guinea shares a border with Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Ivory Coast to the east, Sierra Leone to the southwest and Liberia to the south. The nation forms a crescent as it curves from its southeast region to the north and west, to its northwest border with Guinea-Bissau and southwestern coast on the Atlantic Ocean. The sources of the Niger River, the Gambia River, and the Senegal River are all found in the Guinea Highlands. At 245,857 km2 (94,926 sq mi), Guinea is roughly the size of the United Kingdom.

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Politics

While Guinea is a republic de jure, since the 2021 coup d'état it has been governed as a de facto military autocracy. The president is directly elected by the people and is the head of state and the head of government. The unicameral National Assembly is the legislative body of the country, and its members are directly elected by the people. The judicial branch is headed by the Supreme Court of Guinea, the highest and final court of appeal in the country. Since the 2021 coup, the National Assembly and Supreme Court have been suspended. The country has been led by special forces commander Mamady Doumbouya following the coup and an election in 2025.

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Economy

As of the most recent survey in 2018, 66.2% of the population is affected by multidimensional poverty and an additional 16.4% vulnerable to it.

The agriculture sector at some point employed approximately 75% of the country. The rice is cultivated in the flooded zones between streams and rivers. The local production of rice is not sufficient to feed the country, so rice is imported from Asia. Guinea is one of the emerging regional producers of apples and pears. There are plantations of grapes, pomegranates, and more recent years have seen the development of strawberry plantations, based on the vertical hydroponic system.

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Transport

Ahmed Sékou Touré International Airport in Conakry is the largest airport in the country, with flights to other cities in Africa and to Europe.

Built between 1904 and 1910, a railway that once linked Conakry to Kankan via Kouroussa ceased operating in 1995 and had been dismantled altogether by 2007 with the rails mostly stolen or sold for scrap.

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Demographics

At the Census of 1 July 2025, the population of Guinea was calculated to be 17.5 million. Conakry, the capital and most populous city, is a hub of economy, commerce, education, and culture. In 2014, the total fertility rate (TFR) of Guinea was estimated at 4.93 children born per woman.

The following table excludes those communes which are within the Conakry Special Zone.

Note that Manéah, which was in the 2014 list (in 4th place) is no longer included as it is now part of Conakry; its place is effectively taken by adjacent Coyah.

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Culture

Football is the "most popular sport" in the country of Guinea, alongside basketball. Football operations are run by the Guinean Football Federation. The association administers the national football team, and the national league. It was founded in 1960 and affiliated with FIFA since 1962 and with the Confederation of African Football since 1963. The Guinea national football team, nicknamed Syli nationale (National Elephants), have played international football since 1962. Their first opponent was East Germany. They have yet to reach World Cup finals, and were runners-up to Morocco in the Africa Cup of Nations in 1976.

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