Officially known as the Republic of Guinea, it lies on the western edge of Africa, with a coastal strip, including the capital, Conakry, adjoining the Atlantic. It neighbours Guinea-Bissau and Senegal to the north, Mali and Ivory Coast to the east, and Liberia and Sierra Leone to the south. Similar in size to the UK, Guinea has a population of around 10 million.
What is its recent history?
The territory that later became Guinea first encountered Europeans when the Portuguese arrived in the 15th century. It later became a significant base for the Atlantic slave trade.
Guinea became part of French West Africa at the end of the 19th century, gaining independence in October 1958. In a referendum, the population voted to sever ties with France, meaning it received no assistance from its former colonial master.
The first post-independence president, Ahmed Sékou Touré, who ruled from 1958 until his death in 1984, joined the Non-Aligned Movement and pushed Guinea towards closer ties with the Soviet bloc.
Although Touré is still seen by some in the region as a symbol of African independence, his socialist policies left the economy moribund, while many thousands of opponents were tortured or executed, or simply disappeared.
What happened under Conté's rule?
A former French army sergeant who served in Algeria, Conté rose through the ranks of Guinea's post-independence military. A week after Touré died he led a coup that toppled the interim leader and introduced a series of market-based economic reforms.
While he initially governed as a military dictator, in the early 1990s Conté allowed the formation of political parties, and independent Guinea held its first elections in December 1993. That poll, and subsequent votes won by the president in 1998 and 2003, were criticised by opponents and observers as being marred by fraud.
In the later years of his rule, Conté faced a series of riots and other unrest, primarily related to food prices and other economic issues.
What state has Conté left Guinea in?
The country has the potential to be one of Africa's richest thanks to its mineral reserves, notably bauxite, used to make aluminium, of which it is the world's leading exporter.
However, it remains desperately poor, with a per capita income of around $400 a year, according to the World Bank. Life expectancy is 56 years, while around a quarter of infants are classed as malnourished.
In recent years, Guinea has attempted to boost its earnings by building plants to convert bauxite into alumina, the more valuable ore from which aluminium is made.
However, efforts to enrich the nation have been hampered by the influx of around 1 million refugees fleeing conflict in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast.
External investors are also put off by rampant corruption. The corruption-monitoring organisation Transparency International ranks Guinea as 173rd in a list of 180 countries with corruption problems.