The No. 2 of Guinea’s military junta returned to the country overnight, helping fill a dangerous power vacuum after the president was shot by his top aide and evacuated for emergency treatment, a government spokesman said yesterday.
General Sekouba Konate, one of the vice presidents of the junta and minister of defense, had been in Lebanon and had rushed back after Captain Moussa “Dadis” Camara was wounded in an apparent assassination attempt by his aide-de-camp. Camara was airlifted to a military hospital in Morocco early on Friday where he is receiving treatment.
Camara had undergone a “minor operation” and his life was not in danger, a spokesman said yesterday.
Minister of Communications Idrissa Cherif said a nationwide manhunt was continuing for the former head of the presidential guard and one of the president’s most trusted aides Lieutenant Abubakar “Toumba” Diakite who opened fire on Camara following an altercation on Thursday.
Cherif also confirmed that two people were killed in the confrontation, including Camara’s driver and his bodyguard.
“The bodyguard’s head was crushed. They attacked him with machetes. His eyes were poked out,” Cherif said.
Camara’s departure has left a dangerous void in the country, where the military has become deeply fractured. It is the first time that the 45-year-old leader has left Guinea since seizing control in a coup last December.
The void was exacerbated by Konate’s absence. Konate has become one of Camara’s closest associates and the two were almost always seen together. He is said to have several hundred men that are faithful to him.
Konate’s return makes it more likely that the clan allied with Camara will be able to hang on to power.
Toumba was the head of the presidential guard and is accused of having led the Sept. 28 massacre at a pro-democracy rally. At least 157 civilians were killed and dozens of women were also gang raped by soldiers on the stadium grass during the massacre, human rights groups said.
Human rights groups believe that Camara — who was not at the stadium — most likely gave the order to have the protesters killed, but it was Toumba that was widely seen carrying it out.
The massacre led the EU and the African Union to impose sanctions on Guinea. A UN commission traveled to Conakry to begin interviewing dozens of witnesses to the massacre in an effort to assign blame.
Although it is unclear what caused the confrontation between Camara and Toumba on Thursday, officials said that the presence of the UN investigators who arrived last week had ratcheted up tension between them.
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