Transitional authorities in junta-led Guinea have appointed one-time opposition leader and economist Mamadou Oury Bah to the role of prime minister, according to a decree read on national television on Tuesday.
The political veteran faces a challenging task setting up a government amid an indefinite general strike launched this week over deep economic hardships and the military authorities' allegedly repressive policies.
Television footage showed Bah taking the oath of office in front of interim President Mamady Doumbouya, a special forces commander who ousted former President Alpha Conde in a coup in 2021.
Bah's background
The appointment of the PM comes days after the interim President Doumbouya dissolved the transitional government.
Bah, commonly known as Bah Oury, has been a prominent figure on the Guinean political scene since the early nineties.
He served as minister of reconciliation in a consensus government in the wake of a political crisis triggered by the killing of at least 130 people in union-led protests in 2007.
The founder and vice president of the UFDG party later spent four years in exile in France, during which time he was convicted in absentia for a 2011 assassination attempt against Conde.
He returned to Guinea in 2016 following a presidential pardon, but was later pushed out of UFDG. In recent years, he has faced criticism for his support of the junta.
Return to civilian rule
The military leaders in Guinea and the regional bloc, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), agreed on a 24-month transition to elections in October 2022.
As such, junta leader Doumbouya, who was elevated to the rank of general last month, promised to hand over power to civilian leaders by the end of 2024.
On Tuesday, businesses remained paralyzed in Guinea's capital Conakry as a nationwide workers' strike entered a second day to demand higher wages and cut s in food prices.
Two people were reportedly shot dead and others injured during clashes with security forces on Monday on the first day of the strike.
