Reports from the region say President Alpha Conde has been overthrown through a Coup d’état in Conakry, Guinea on Sunday, September 5, 2021.
But the UN has called for Conde’s release and criticized the “takeover” by force in Guinea.
President Alpha Condé was arrested by the mutineers under the command of Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, a former legionary of the French army, who was recalled to Guinea to head the GPS created in 2018.
Conde was toppled by the military for suspending the country’s Constitution. The borders, airspace and land are all closed and the National assembly is also suspended.
The Army is arguing the General public to remain calm. Meanwhile Presidential Election was held last year in Guinea when President Alpha Conde tampered with the two-term constitutional rights to third term for his selfish interests because France is backing him.
The same constitutional tampering was done in Ivory Coast also when Alassana Outarra also passed the two-term constitutional mandate of the presidency to the 3rd.
According to DW, Guinea putschists said since the capture of President Conde, the government has been dissolved while a government statement said they have been repulsed.
It all started when heavy gunfire broke out near the presidential palace in Guinea’s capital, Conakry where several sources said an elite national army unit led by a former French legionnaire, Mamady Doumbouya, was behind the unrest.
The shots were fired in the Kaloum peninsula area of the capital, which is home not only to the presidential palace, but other government institutions and ministries.
A source in the presidential palace told DW that the president was detained by Special Forces. Yet, the source added that the soldiers staging the coup are only a small group, with the rest of the army staying loyal to President Alpha Conde.
Troops were deployed to the streets in response to the incident, with the military blocking access from the mainland to Kaloum. Guinean President Conde was reportedly unharmed by the gunfire, but his exact whereabouts are still unclear.
Local residents said they have been asked by soldiers to stay in their homes, according to news agency AFP. Guinea’s Defense Ministry claimed in a statement that the presidential guard and security forces “had contained the threat and repelled the group of assailants.”
“Security and sweeping operations are continuing to restore order and peace,” the statement said.
On the other hand, videos circulating on social media appear to show the president having been detained by the army in an apparent coup attempt while the situation remains unclear as a group of soldiers claim the President has been arrested and the Guinean government has been dissolved.
A Guinean army colonel draped in a national flag said in a broadcast on state television that the country’s borders have been closed and that a transitional government will soon be formed.
“The personalization of political life is over. We will no longer entrust politics to one man. We will entrust it to the people,” Colonel Mamadi Doumboya said in the broadcast.
“It looks like the coup has actually succeeded,” DW West Africa correspondent Fred Muvunyi said from Lagos, Nigeria. “We just had our colleagues in Conakry telling us that the army that staged the coup has already been on TV and national radio confirming that they have arrested Alpha Conde.”
“It’s still confusing to know who is going to take over,” Muvunyi added, citing the country’s internal divisions. Muvunyi reported that some people in Conakry are celebrating in the streets due to Conde’s possible ouster.
The 83-year old President won a controversial third term in October after changing the constitution to allow him to stand again despite violent protests from the opposition thus raising concerns to backslide in a region that has seen coups in Mali and Chad in recent months.
Conde assumed office in 2010 after the country’s first-ever democratic elections. He survived an assassination attempt in 2011.
The opposition claimed last year’s election was fraudulent, with dozens of people subsequently killed in anti-government protests.
The Guinean President has pledged to stamp out the country’s rampant corruption, but critics say he has failed to improve life for the average citizen.
Although Guinea is rich in natural resources, including diamonds and gold, much of the country’s population lives in poverty.
Guinea declared independence from France in 1958 and witnessed a period of military dictatorship from 1984 to 2008.
This story is developing…