Colonel Diarra Traoré was a Guinean military officer and politician born in 1935. Formed at the French military school at Fréjus, he served in the Guinean army after independence in 1958, occupying several important command positions before being dismissed by the suspicious regime of Sékou Touré. Having moved closer to Lansana Conté after the 1984 coup, Traoré briefly became Prime Minister in the Junta of the Military Committee for National Recovery, before being dismissed a few months later.
Attracted by the supreme power, in July 1985 he conducted an aborted coup attempt against Conté. Arrested, tortured and presented on national television, Traoré was summarily executed along with a hundred other soldiers, putting a tragic end to the fate of an ambitious officer determined to take power by force.
Introduction
Colonel Diarra Traoré (1935-1985) was a prominent military and political figure in Guinea's recent history. A military officer under Sékou Touré, he played a key role in the 1984 coup that overthrew the regime. Shortly as Prime Minister, he then attempted to take power by force in 1985, an aborted attempt that cost him his life. His unusual journey made him a controversial and emblematic character of a troubled period for the country.
Enfance et éducation
Born in 1935, Diarra Traoré grew up in Guinea under French colonial rule. Little is known about his childhood, but it is known that he received military training at the French school in Fréjus. This education would shape his future career in the Guinean Armed Forces after independence in 1958.
Carrière militaire
Promoted as an officer, Traoré was entrusted with important responsibilities in the early years of the new regime of Sékou Touré. He was entrusted with command of the garrison of Koundara and then the strategic region of Fouta-Djallon. However, the president's mistrust of him prevented him from climbing higher in the military hierarchy.
Separated from the army in the 1970s, Traoré was appointed governor of various administrative regions by a regime that sought to restrict him to civilian roles. However, he ended up joining the single ruling party, the Democratic Party of Guinea. (PDG).
Rôle dans le Comité Militaire de Redressement National
The sudden death of Sékou Touré in March 1984 created a power vacuum that Traoré was able to take advantage of. Supporting Lieutenant Colonel Lansana Conté's coup d'état on 3 April, he actively participated in the overthrow of interim President Louis Beavogui and the dissolution of the PDG.
Conté took the presidency while Traoré became Prime Minister in the new Military Committee for National Recovery (CMRN). This junta ruled the country collegially at first, ending 26 years of authoritarian rule.
Tentative de coup d'État de 1985
However, relations between the two men deteriorated rapidly. In December 1984, Conté dismissed Traoré from his post of Prime Minister, a decision that was perceived as a humiliation by the latter.
On 4 July 1985, while Conté attended a ECOWAS summit in Togo, Traoré attempted to take control of the country by force with the support of part of the army. But troops loyal to Conté managed to crush the rebellion quickly.
Exécution
Traoré was traced by the loyalist forces and arrested on July 5 while hiding in one of his villas in Conakry. Images showing him wildly beaten were broadcast on national television in a climate of high tension.
In the days that followed, about a hundred soldiers involved in the aborted coup, many of whom were malinked like Traoré, were summarily executed on the order of Conté. Traoré was arrested on 8 July 1985.
Conclusion
The attempted coup d'état of Diarra Traoré and his execution marked a decisive turning point for the Conté regime, which thus was able to establish its authority definitively. But these bloody events with ethnic relapses deeply divided the country.
While Traoré was seen by some as a malicious hero challenging power, for others he was only an ambitious power-loving man. Beyond judgments, his tragic fate illustrates the deep political and military fractures that have shaken Guinea after decades of dictatorship.
This episode also leaves a bitter taste, that of a junta that did not hesitate to settle by arms, buriing its promises of democratic change. The memory of Diarra Traoré thus remains inseparable from the terrible authoritarian drifts that marked this cruel period.
