Guinea
Guinea gained independence from France in 1958, and remained relatively stable until a coup in 2008. The country is vulnerable to possible attacks given its location in a turbulent region, with the presence of terrorist groups and the proliferation of small arms and light weapons.1 Armed groups involved in conflicts in neighbouring countries have established their bases in the mountainous region in the south-east of the country. Several cross-border arms flows between Guinea and the Sahel region have also been identified.2
The country’s guiding gun control legislation includes the Act of 1996 on Weapons, Ammunition, Gunpowders and Explosives. Guinea has signed and ratified the Arms Trade Treaty.3 The Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (BICC); the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS); the HALO Trust; the Mines Advisory Group (MAG); the UN Development Programme (UNDP); the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA); and the UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament and Development in Africa (UNREC) have supported various ammunition management programmes in the country, including those on ammunition destruction and stockpiles security.4
1 Alexis Arieff “Still Standing: Neighbourhood Wars and Political Stability in Guinea,” The Journal of Modern African Studies 47, no. 3 (2009): 331-348, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40538315.
2 André Desmarais, Arms Monitoring in Guinea: A Survey of National Forensic Services (Geneva: Small Arms Survey, 2020), https://smallarmssurvey.org/sites/default/files/resources/SANA-BP-Forensics-Guinee_0.pdf.
3 Philip Alpers, Michael Picard and Clara Mourlevat, Guinea – Gun Facts, Figures and the Law (GunPolicy.org, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney, 2022), https://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/guinea.
4 “Ammunition Management Activity Platform (A-MAP),” GICHD, 2022, https://a-map.gichd.org.
Launch the country dashboard
Further information
Accidental explosions
Since the Small Arms Survey began collecting data in 1979, two accidental explosions have been reported in Guinea.
Table 1. Accidental explosions in Guinea (1979–2021)
Year | Location | Owner/manager | Deaths | Injuries |
2002 | Conakry | State (military) | N/A | N/A |
2001 | Conakry | State (military) | 10 | N/A |
Source: “Unplanned Explosions at Munitions Sites (UEMS) Database,” Small Arms Survey, updated December 15, 2021, https://smallarmssurvey.org/database/unplanned-explosions-munitions-sites-uems.
Cases of diversion
Insufficient information on cases of diversion in Guinea.
Disposal
Insufficient information on the disposal of ammunition in Guinea.
Needs
To further enhance safe and secure ammunition management, the following needs have been identified for Guinea:
- Development or refinement of standards and procedures on stockpile management, particularly technical and financial assistance; and
- Capacity development for the destruction of surplus stockpiles, particularly technical and financial assistance.
Source: Guinea, National Report on the Implementation of the Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons (PoA) and the International Tracing Instrument (ITI) (New York: Permanent Mission of Guinea to the UN, 2022), https://unoda-poa.s3.amazonaws.com/reports/GIN-French-1189-SUBMITTED.pdf.
