By Ebi Kesiena
Soldiers who staged an uprising in Guinea’s capital on Sunday have stated in a short broadcast on the West African nation’s state television that they have dissolved the constitution and the government in an apparent coup.
But the Defence Ministry said it had repelled their attack on the presidency.
An unidentified soldier, draped in Guinea’s national flag and surrounded by eight other armed soldiers, said they planned to form a transitional government and would give further details later.
“We have decided after having taken the president, who is currently with us to dissolve the current constitution, to dissolve the institutions; we have also decided to dissolve the government and the closure of land and air borders,” said one of the uniformed and armed coup plotters in the statement, which has also been widely circulated on social networks but has not been broadcast on national television.
The coup plotters broadcasted a video of President Alpha Conde in their hands where they asked him if he has been mistreated, but the president dressed in jeans and a shirt sitting on a sofa, refuses to answer them.
On its part, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement that “the insurgents (had) spread fear” in Conakry before taking the direction of the presidential palace, but that “the presidential guard, supported by the defence and security forces, loyalists and republicans, have contained the threat and pushed back the group of attackers.
However, heavy gunfire broke out near the presidential palace in the capital Conakry on Sunday morning, with several sources saying an elite national army unit led by a former French legionnaire, Mamady Doumbouya, was behind the unrest.
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