Meeting with Newly Appointed Guinea Prime Minister

Over the past several days the CEO of BEFORE, Heinz Krummenacher, and staff in Guinea-Conakry met with the newly appointed Prime Minister of Guinea, Jean-Marie Doré, his staff and United Nations representatives to discuss the implementation of the Ouagadougou agreement signed last month. One of the points in the Ouagadougou agreement called for Defense and Security Sector reform in Guinea.

Not coincidentally, BEFORE had been working on an examination of the Defense and Security Forces for some months when the agreement was signed in Ouagadougou. This was a pre-existing activity of BEFORE and its partners because in May of 2009 BEFORE held a Consolidation of Peace Workshop, thanks to the support of the Arsenault Family Foundation. At the Peace Workshop more than 50 diverse local Guinean leaders met to discuss a path for peace in their country. During the Peace Workshop local leaders laid out a National Action Plan for Peace which identified steps on how they could all build and foster stable peace in Guinea together. One of the first recommendations was to conduct an examination of the Guinean Defense and Security Forces. BEFORE was just beginning to implement the National Action Plan with the start of the Defense and Security Force examination when the events of September 28th occurred. Though the situation in Guinea became volatile over the next several months BEFORE and its partners continued to adapt their work to the ever-evolving situation and stayed in Guinea to help resolve the crisis that transpired on the 28th of September.


BEFORE and its partners presented the Examination of Defense and Security Forces in Guinea to Prime Minister Doré and our other international partners during their meetings over the last week in hopes of supporting Guinea’s further movement toward lasting peace. Read the Examination of Defense and Security Forces in Guinea and recommendations for reform here. An English translation of the Examination is forthcoming.