CONAKRY: Special forces soldiers appeared on Sunday to have ousted Guinea’s long-serving president, telling the nation they had dissolved its government and constitution and closed its land and air borders.

As the United Nations condemned any takeover by force and the West African region’s economic bloc threatened reprisals, the elite army unit’s head, Mamady Doumbouya, said “poverty and endemic corruption” had driven his forces to remove President Alpha Conde from office.

“We have dissolved government and institutions,” Doumbouya — a former French foreign legionnaire — said on state television, draped in Guinea’s national flag and surrounded by eight other armed soldiers. “We are going to rewrite a constitution together.”

Gunfire erupted near the presidential palace in the capital, Conakry, on Sunday morning. Hours later, videos shared on social media showed Conde in a room surrounded by army special forces.

Military sources said the president was taken to an undisclosed location and that the forces commanded by Doumbouya — who one of the sources, a close colleague, described as calm and reserved by nature — had made several other arrests.

They included senior government officials, the sources said.

Guinea’s main opposition leader, Cellou Dalein Diallo, brushed aside rumours that he was among those detained.

Taxes and protests

Conde won a third term in October last year after changing the constitution to allow him to stand again, triggering violent protests from the opposition.

In recent weeks the government has sharply increased taxes to replenish state coffers and raised the price of fuel by 20 percent, causing widespread frustration.

By Sunday evening it was not clear if Doumbouya had taken full control, the defence ministry having issued a statement saying an attack on the presidential palace had been repelled.

But United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he condemned “any takeover of the government by force” and called for Conde’s immediate release.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2021