On Saturday, heavily armed men temporarily released former dictator Moussa Dadis Camara and three fellow prisoners from prison. At least nine people were killed in Conakry, Guinea, in this commando operation, the public prosecutor’s office said Monday morning.
Among these deaths are three alleged attackers, four members of the security forces and two occupants of an ambulance, apparently civilians, according to a still provisional assessment put forward in a press release by Attorney General Yamoussa Conte. The press had reported civilians injured on board an ambulance by heavy exchanges of automatic weapon fire.
Escape or kidnapping?
Men attacked the central prison in the heart of the capital in the early hours of Saturday and extracted Moussa Dadis Camara and three other prisoners, all four currently on trial for a massacre committed in 2009 under his presidency.
Three of them, including Captain Dadis Camara, were recaptured the same day, without it being clear whether they had escaped or been taken against their will, as their lawyers say. A fourth man, Claude Pivi, who is also among the main defendants in the trial, is still on the run. The Attorney General indicated in his press release that he was launching proceedings against Moussa Dadis Camara and his three fellow detainees for assassination of members of the security forces and manslaughter.
Murders, torture and rapes
Moussa Dadis Camara and ten military and government officials have been answering since September 2022 in court for a litany of murders, acts of torture, rapes and other kidnappings committed on September 28, 2009 and the following days by security forces in a stadium in the suburb of Conakry, where tens of thousands of opposition supporters gathered, and surrounding areas.
At least 156 people were killed and hundreds injured, and at least 109 women raped, according to the report of a commission of inquiry mandated by the UN. The junta which took power by force in September 2021 published a series of texts on Sunday evening pronouncing the dismissal of dozens of soldiers and prison administration agents.