Timeline of BEFORE’s Response in Guinea
For fifty-two years all the ten million people of Guinea could do was hope and wait. Hope for the independence they thought they had won from colonial France. And wait for the chance to finally achieve political freedom.
But, as time passed gross economic inequalities began to develop and public calls for greater justice and equality led to a stringent military response that almost pushed the country to a breaking point. In 2008, as Guinea’s 2nd president was increasingly ill, BEFORE began to support local efforts to prevent a civil war.
Developing a nascent democracy from a military dictatorship doesn’t happen every day. In fact, it rarely happens. But, with strategic projects and an extraordinary combination of factors, such as the aligning foreign policies of some of the world’s most powerful countries, a surprisingly strong and vibrant civil society, a failed assassination attempt that shifted the military-led government’s power, and savvy local leaders that wanted change, Guinea is on its way to peace and stability.
Here are the details of BEFORE’s prevention and response efforts leading up to Guinea’s historic 2010 presidential elections.
