CONAKRY: Guinea’s president has been medically evacuated to Morocco for treatment after he was shot during an assassination attempt nearly a year after he seized power in a coup, a government official said Friday.
It was the first time President Moussa “Dadis” Camara had left the West African country since taking power. He had nearly left on multiple occasions — at times leaving the private jets of allied countries idling at the airport — as he canceled at the last minute, citing fears of a counter-coup.
Communication Minister Idrissa Cherif declined to elaborate on Camara’s wounds, saying only that they were not life-threatening and that Camara would undergo further tests in Morocco. Camara had breakfast with his closest aides and is “walking and talking and doing fine,” Cherif said.
“He had an audience with us just before leaving,” Cherif said. “Everything is under control.”
Several people, though, said the president had suffered a bullet wound to the head. Guinea’s communication minister denied those reports.
The government had earlier said that Camara was shot Thursday by Abubakar “Toumba” Diakite, who commands the presidential guard. A rift had opened between the two following a September massacre during which human rights groups say presidential guard members killed at least 157 unarmed civilians at a pro-democracy rally.
A senior civil servant who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press, said that he had spoken to members of the military who confirmed that Camara was in serious condition from a head wound.
A retired diplomat, who also asked that his name not be used for the same reason, said that he, too, had spoken to the coup leader’s aides who said that Camara was bleeding from the head.
