Witnesses say heavy gunfire broke out near Rashtrapati Bhavan in Guinea’s capital and lasted for hours. It was not immediately known whether President Alpha Condé was at home when the shooting began.
A Guinean army colonel captured state television on Sunday and announced that President Alpha Condé’s government had been dissolved and the West African country’s borders closed, an announcement that followed a heavy rush of hours near the presidential palace. After the shelling.
Sunday’s dramatic developments bore all the hallmarks of a West African coup. After being captured by airwaves, rebel troops vowed to restore democracy and gave themselves a name: The National Committee of Gathering and Development.
Colonel Mamadi Daumbouya sat wrapped in a Guinean flag, accompanied by half a dozen other soldiers in uniform, as he read the statement: “The duty of a soldier is to save the country.”
He made no mention of Conde’s whereabouts and it was not immediately known where the 83-year-old leader was after Sunday’s attack. Conde’s popularity has waned since seeking a third term last year, saying the term limits did not apply to him.
“Privatization of political life is over. We will not hand over politics to one man now, we will hand it over to the people,” Dumbauya said, adding that the Constitution will also be dissolved and borders will be closed for a week.
Daumbouya, who leads a special forces unit in the military, said he is acting in the best interest of a nation of more than 12.7 million people. The colonel said that since independence from France in 1958 there has not been enough economic progress.
“If you look at the condition of our roads, if you look at the condition of our hospitals, you realize that after 72 years it is time to wake up,” he said. “We have to wake up.”
Heavy gunfire broke out near Rashtrapati Bhavan in the capital of Conakry early Sunday and lasted for hours, raising fears of an attempted coup. The Defense Ministry claimed the attack had been repulsed, but uncertainty grew when there was no sign of Conde on state television or radio.
His re-election in October led to violent street protests, in which the opposition said dozens were killed. Sunday’s developments underscored how he had become vulnerable to dissident elements within his army.
Conde came to power in 2010 in the country’s first democratic election since independence from France. Many saw his presidency as a new beginning for a country that has been engulfed by decades of corrupt, authoritarian rule.
Opponents say he has failed to improve the lives of the people of Guinea, most of whom live in poverty despite the country’s vast mineral wealth, including bauxite and gold.
In 2011, he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt after gunmen surrounded his house overnight and rockets into his bedroom. Rocket-propelled grenades also landed inside the compound and one of his bodyguards was killed.
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