A port city, it serves as the economic, financial and cultural centre of Guinea. Its population as of the Guinea census was 1,, The current population of Conakry is difficult to ascertain, although the U. Department of State's Bureau of African Affairs has estimated it at two million, accounting for one-sixth of the entire population of the country. Conakry was originally settled on the small Tombo Island and later spread to the neighboring Kaloum Peninsula, a kilometer-long 22 mi stretch of land 0.
The city was essentially founded after Britain ceded the island to France in Conakry became the capital of French Guinea in and prospered as an export port, particularly after a railway now closed to Kankan opened up the interior of the country for the large-scale export of groundnut. In the decades after independence, the population of Conakry boomed, from 50, inhabitants in to , in , to over two million today.
Camp Boiro , a feared concentration camp during the rule of Sekou Toure , was located in Conakry. According to human rights groups, people died during the Guinea protest when the military junta opened fire against tens of thousands of protesters in the city on 28 September Conakry features a wet season and a dry season. Like most of West Africa, Conakry's dry season is dominated by the harmattan wind between December and April. As a result, almost no rain falls in the city during these months.
Compared to most of West Africa, Conakry's wet season sees an extraordinary amount of rainfall, averaging more than 1, millimetres 43 in in both July and August. As a result, Conakry's average annual rainfall totals nearly 3, millimetres in. However, the dry season is still dry, with January and February only receiving 1 millimetre 0 in of rainfall on average. Sunshine is lower in the wet season than the dry season, with August receiving the least sunshine and March receiving the most.
Conakry is a special city with a single region and prefecture government. The local government of the city was decentralized in between five municipal communes headed by a mayor. The five urban communes make up the Conakry Region , one of the eight Regions of Guinea , which is headed by a governor. At the second-tier prefecture level, the city is designated as the Conakry Special Zone , though the prefecture and regional government are one and the same.
