Former Guinean dictator Moussa Dadis Camara, released from prison on Saturday, November 4, at dawn, by a heavily armed commando, was recaptured and put back behind bars, the army and his lawyer announced. “Captain Moussa Dadis Camara was found safe and sound and taken back to prison,” declared the director of information for the armed forces (Dirpa), Ansouma Toumany Camara, without specifying the circumstances of the capture. One of the former president’s lawyers, Jocamey Haba, confirmed in a brief exchange with Agence France-Presse that his client was back in cell.
On Saturday morning, several armed men stormed the main prison in Conakry, Guinea, and freed the former Guinean dictator and two or three, according to sources, other former officials currently on trial like him for a massacre perpetrated under his rule. presidency. One of them had already been taken back during the day. At the end of the afternoon, only Colonel Claude Pivi remained untraceable, said the director of Dirpa. He “is actively wanted”, but “he has no chance of leaving the country since Conakry is cordoned off”, he added. The Minister of Justice, Alphonse Charles Wright, had earlier announced the closure of the borders.
The commando assault woke up the center of the capital before dawn to the sound of automatic weapons. “It was about 5 in the morning. Heavily armed men broke into the central house in Conakry,” said Alphonse Charles Wright. “They managed to leave with four defendants in the trial of the events of September 28 [2009]. » “I tell the people of Guinea that they will be found wherever they are,” he added. And those responsible will have to answer for their actions,” Mr. Wright told local radio FIM FM.
The exchanges of fire with automatic weapons were reminiscent of the putsch of September 2021, when Colonel Doumbouya and his men overthrew civilian President Alpha Condé by force of arms. But the army general staff affirmed on Saturday its “unwavering commitment” to the authorities, calling on the population for calm. In a press release read on state television, the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces, General Ibrahima Sory Bangoura, presented the operation as an attempt to “sabotage” the reform action carried out under the leadership of the Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya, who took power in September 2021. “We, the defense and security forces, reaffirm our unwavering commitment to these reforms which are crucial for the progress and stability of our nation,” he said .
At least 156 dead on September 28, 2009
“The attorney general confirmed to me that my client had been taken out of prison by heavily armed men,” Moussa Dadis Camara’s lawyer, Jocamey Haba, confirmed at the start of the day. “I still think he was kidnapped. He has confidence in the justice of his country, which is why he will never try to escape,” he added, referring to the ongoing trial. “His life is in danger,” he assured. Since September 28, 2022, the trial of the former dictator, in power between December 2008 and January 2010, has been held in Guinea. He has been detained in the center of the capital since the start of the hearings.
Captain Camara and a dozen former military and government officials are responding to a series of murders, acts of torture, rapes and other kidnappings committed on September 28, 2009 by security forces at the 28-September stadium in the suburbs of Conakry, where tens of thousands of opposition supporters gathered, and surrounding areas. At least 156 people were killed and hundreds injured, and at least 109 women raped, according to the report of a commission of inquiry mandated by the UN.
The announcement of Moussa Dadis Camara’s escape came a few hours after heavy gunfire broke out in the Guinean capital early Saturday morning. Several witnesses reported that the streets were deserted and that armored vehicles had been deployed. “The city center has been blocked since dawn, no entry or exit,” a trader told AFP. “There is automatic and war weapon fire in the political-administrative district of Kaloum,” said another resident.
Kaloum, located on a peninsula, is the seat of the presidency, the government, institutions, the army headquarters but also the central prison. Some testimonies located the shootings near the prison but also the 8-Novembre bridge, a crucial road junction for entering and leaving the center.
