Dictator's death sparks coup in Guinea

updated 10:36 a.m. ET Dec. 23, 2008

CONAKRY, Guinea - A military-led group seized control of the airwaves in Guinea and declared a coup Tuesday after the death of the mineral-rich West African country's longtime dictator, but the prime minister insisted he remained in charge.

An Associated Press reporter saw dozens of armed soldiers heading toward the prime minister's office inside the country's presidential compound. The troops' allegiance was not immediately apparent.

But they appeared less than an hour after Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souare announced in a state broadcast that he was inside his office and that his government had not been dissolved.

Two tanks were parked near the compound and a third was circulating through the capital. A fourth was parked at the headquarters of state-run radio and TV, where transmissions had been cut.

Earlier Tuesday, a group calling itself the National Council for Democracy began announcing its takeover on state-run radio and TV, just hours after longtime dictator Lansana Conte's death was made public.

'The government is dissolved'
"The government is dissolved. The institutions of the republic are dissolved. ... From this moment on, the council is taking charge of the destiny of the Guinean people," said the coup leader, who identified himself as Capt. Moussa Camara.

Conte, who was believed to be in his 70s although the government never disclosed his birth date, was only Guinea's second president since it gained independence from France a half-century ago.

He was one of the last members of a dwindling group of so-called "African Big Men" who came to power by the gun and resisted the democratic tide sweeping the continent. Conte's death on Monday leaves just a handful left, including Gabon's Omar Bongo, who took power in 1967 and Robert Mugabe, who has been Zimbabwe's only leader since its 1980 independence.

While Guinea has managed to avoid the catastrophic wars that have ravaged its West African neighbors, Jean-Herve Jezequel warned of a "real risk of violence in Conakry" regardless of who is officially in charge.

"We were all waiting for the situation to degenerate when Conte died, because the question of succession was never decided," said Jezequel, a West Africa scholar in France who works for the MSF Foundation, linked to the aid group Doctors Without Borders.

"Much will depend on whether another strongman emerges or not in the coming days," said Jezequel, who predicted that any new leadership, even military-based, will likely hold presidential elections in part to appease the country's labor unions.

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