Guinea’s special forces on Sunday announced the arrest of President Alpha Conde in a move to unravel a coup attempt in the capital Conakry.
Guineas military has claimed it has “dissolved” the country’s institutions, in a video sent to AFP news aggregator.
The countries Defence Ministry in response to that, said it had repelled the attack on the presidency.
“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.
Earlier in the day, sporadic gunfire in Conakry near the presidential palace was heard from Mike’s away. It was, however, not clear who was carrying out the shooting or under whose orders.
Unconfirmed reports on a video gone viral is suggestive of the President being surrounded by soldiers. His whereabouts remains Unknow to the time of this report.
The Ministry of Defense 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.”