Guinea: Four high-ranking army commanders sacked after attack on central prison

Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya, head of ruling junta in Guinea, expelled Tuesday November 14 four Army top commanders few days after an attack on the country’s main prison to release former leader Moussa Dadis Camara standing on a trial for a massacre committed on protestors in 2009.

A decree signed by Doumbouya announced that Colonel Pépé Célestin Bilivogui (navy), Commandant Ibrahima Sory Sangaré (ASFAG), Lieutenant Sékou Mansaré, and Lieutenant Abas Touré (BQG) are sacked from the Army, local media ‘Guinee Matin’ reports.

The decision did not provide rationale behind the sackings but it came several days after a jailbreak by Camara and several other detainees helped by a commando. A commando assaulted the prison in capital Conakry and freed Camara on November 04. Clashes led to the death of nine people.

Camara’s lawyer earlier told the BBC the former leader was taken against his will, and that he would never try to escape prison, as he had confidence in the Guinean judicial system.

Camara was re-arrested and brought back to jail alongside two other escapers but a fourth one, Col Claude Pivi, a former government minister, has been on the run ever since. Authorities believed the attack on the prison was conducted with the help of some officers from within.

Camara who came to power in a coup in 2008 and led the country until December the following year has been charged for the massacre of more than 150 people in a protest in Conakry stadium on 28 September 2009.