One of Africa’s long-serving dictators and President of Guinea Alpha Conde has been toppled by the army.
The elite army said it has ousted Conde, dissolved the government and closed land borders.
“Poverty and endemic corruption” were to blame for the coup, the army unit’s head, Mamady Doumbouya, told the nation after the United Nations condemned the coup and the West African region’s economic bloc threatened reprisals.
“We have dissolved government and institutions,” Doumbouya said on state television hours after gunfire erupted near the presidential palace in the capital Conakry, on Sunday morning.
Videos later shared on the social media showed Conde in a room surrounded by army special forces.
Simon Ateba is Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa. Simon covers President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, the U.S. government, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial and international institutions in Washington D.C. and New York City.
