Guinea on edge after attack on junta leader

CONAKRY, Saturday

Guinea’s capital was on edge on Saturday following a botched assassination attempt on the head of the ruling junta, with residents bracing for further violence between out-of-control army factions.

Pickup trucks carrying heavily armed soldiers moved through the quiet streets of the normally bustling city searching for suspects in the attack, with shops open only part-time and most residents staying indoors.

“The situation is very dangerous. If the president dies of his injuries, that could open the path to violent conflict in this country. This could even mean ethnic clashes,” said Kemoko Kaba, a real estate broker in Conakry.

Renegade soldiers on Thursday shot and wounded junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara in a sign of divisions in the army since he took power in a December coup after the death of strongman leader Lansana Conte.

Camara was evacuated for medical treatment in Morocco and could require surgery due to multiple gunshot wounds, Burkina Faso President Blaise Campaore, whose presidential plane was used to transport Camara, said on Friday.

There was no public update on his health today.

Rising instability in the West African nation, the world’s top supplier of aluminium ore bauxite, threatens to spill over into a region scarred by a rash of civil wars.

Residents of Conakry said an aura of fear had descended on the capital since the attack, with concern that Camara’s death will trigger open hostility between military factions.

“I’ve seen people previously hostile to Dadis who now say they hope he does not die. Everyone is afraid of that,” said Maimanou Bah, a secretary in Conakry.

Thursday’s attack may have stemmed from heavy international pressure on Camara after a brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters on September 28 in which human rights groups said 157 people were killed and scores of women raped.

“Camara’s attempt to bring those errant soldiers to book triggered the assassination attempt,” said Sebastian Spio-Garbrah, an analyst for Eurasia Group. (Reuters)