CONAKRY, Guinea — Guinea’s president narrowly survived an assassination attempt Tuesday after gunmen encircled his home overnight and pounded his bedroom with heavy-artillery, throwing into doubt the stability of the country’s first democratically elected government in a part of the world that has long been ruled by the gun.
President Alpha Conde was saved because he was sleeping in a different room when the shooting erupted outside his residence at around 3 a.m. Rocket-propelled grenades landed inside the compound and one of his bodyguards was killed, said Francois Louceny Fall, a minister at the presidency who acts as Conde’s chief of staff. The bedroom was ripped apart by bazooka and RPG-7 fire, Conde said in an interview with French radio RFI.
The 73-year-old Conde later addressed the nation on state radio, saying his security detail had “heroically fought starting at 3:10 a.m. until reinforcements arrived.” He urged the population to remain calm and said the attack would not derail the promises he made to voters seven months ago when he became the first democratically elected leader in Guinea’s 52-year history.
“If your hand is in the hand of God, nothing can happen to you. ... Our enemies can try everything, but they will not stop the march of the Guinean people,” Conde said in his address. “Guinea is one country. We are united, for we cannot grow if we are not united. Let us not accept to be divided.”
Just hours later, shooting broke out again near his home and residents say they saw the red-beret-wearing presidential guard take fighting positions.
Conde was inside meeting with the French ambassador and the diplomat was forced to lay on the floor to avoid the bullets, the president said on RFI. A bodyguard who was close to the former strongman was arrested attempting to pierce the police cordon aoround the house, Fall told The Associated Press by telephone.
Soldiers fanned out across the capital city located on a peninsula jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean on Africa’s western coast. They tied ropes between trees at intersections, and traffic was at a standstill as each car was stopped and drivers were told to open their trunks. Military helicopters circled overhead. Shops and schools were closed.
Tens of millions of dollars were invested by the international community to ensure last year’s transparent vote, and a coup would be a major setback for the region, analysts said.
“It just shows the fragility of the country,” said Guinea-based election expert Elizabeth Cote of the International Foundation for Election Systems.
In Paris, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe spoke by telephone Tuesday with Conde to express his nation’s support, his ministry said in a statement. “The return of democracy to Guinea ... constitutes an example for Africa,” Juppe said.
Until last year, Guinea was one of the continent’s failed states, a country with an abominable human rights record whose destiny was determined not by the ballot box but by the mood of officers inside the capital’s barracks.
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