The reigning military administration of Guinea declared that deposed president Alpha Conde has been released from house detention and can now receive visitors, including family members.
Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, the coup leader and interim president, “informs national and world opinion that the former president of the country is finally free,” according to a military statement released late Friday.
“He can welcome members of his biological and political family, friends, and close ones on demand while continuing to benefit from proper protection,” it stated.
The former president will stay at his wife’s family home in a suburb of the city, Conakry, until his own home is renovated, according to the statement.
Last year, army officers deposed the 84-year-old and replaced him with Doumbouya. In January, he was granted permission to travel to the United Arab Emirates for medical treatment, and he returned to Guinea on April 10.
Rally of the Guinean People (RPG), Conde’s party, has claimed that he was not fully free before or after his trip, and has demanded his “complete and unconditional freedom.”
To express its opposition to his incarceration, the RPG withdrew from a military-sponsored national reconciliation conference.
Conde became Guinea’s first democratically elected president in 2010, bringing an end to the country’s two previous presidents’ authoritarian rule, which lasted a combined 50 years.
Conde successfully pushed through a new constitution in 2020, allowing him to seek for a third term in October of that year.
The move provoked widespread protests, with scores of demonstrators slain. Conde won the election in October, but his political opponents called the votes a fraud.
Guinea was suspended from the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States as a result of Conde’s fall from power, which was highly criticised by Guinea’s friends.
Guinea’s coup leaders have been sanctioned by the 15-nation bloc, which has given them until April 25 to propose a plan for returning to constitutional governance.
