Guinea retires 4,600 soldiers in army reform drive

Guinea has forced about 4,600 soldiers into retirement, the government said on Saturday, as part of a drive to tame the West African state's notoriously oversized and unruly army. Analysts have long called on Guinea to shrink and control its military to help stabilise the world's top supplier of the aluminium ore bauxite. But the move could anger an army that has overthrown the government twice since 1984.
The forced retirements were the first measures President Alpha Conde has taken to reform his armed forces since he was elected last year in the state's first free poll since independence from France in 1960. Conde is also Guinea's defence minister. The retired soldiers, some of whom joined as early as the 1950s, will get three months severance pay with the UN financing two-thirds of the overall cost, Defence Minister Delegate Abdoul Kabele Camara said on state television.