Espinal Nunez and Schlenker landed in Conakry, Guinea, for a fuel stop during a Suriname-to-Dubai charter flight in late December. On the ground, they were greeted not by a refueling truck but by dozens of heavily armed Guinean military personnel who took the pilots into custody on a series of charges, according to media reports.

The two were released on bail last month, required to remain in Conakry while awaiting trial.

Both the US and Guinea have strong incentive to take a low-key approach to the situation, according to Franklin Nossiter, an analyst at the Crisis Group focused on the Sahel.

Schlenker told Semafor that he thinks Guinea’s sought-after mineral resources “are weighing in on this situation,” prompting some of the light-touch US approach.

Guinea contains some of the world’s largest deposits of bauxite and iron ore, and the Trump administration has actively cultivated Conakry as a partner during a wider push to secure African mineral resources.

The two governments recently signed a bilateral critical minerals framework and are discussing a proposed railway from Guinean iron mines to the Liberian coast. That project is backed by Ivanhoe Atlantic — a group that includes several former Trump administration Africa officials — which has promoted it as an American-aligned alternative to the China-backed Simandou rail project.

Nossiter said Guinea is also sensitive to the possibility that the pilots’ case could get amplified publicly by anti-Western nationalists in the country who might frame it as a sovereignty violation at a moment when Conakry is already wary of internal dissent.

Unlike Mali or Burkina Faso, Guinea under President Mamady Doumbouya — who has led the nation since the 2021 coup — did not break sharply with the West, and has tried to navigate what Nossiter called a “middle path” that balances Washington, Beijing, Paris, and Moscow.