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Guinea: Alpha Condé free, but still under surveillance?

Alpha Condé was released on Friday. The former Guinean president can officially live normally again, and even play politics again.

After weeks of an endless soap opera, which took observers from Conakry to the United Arab Emirates, the former president of Guinea, Alpha Condé, is officially free. The deposed head of state, after the September 2021 putsch, had been placed under house arrest.

After a trip to the Gulf for hip treatment, Alpha Condé hoped to join Ivory Coast. Officially to get treatment. But the Guinean actually seemed to want to find refuge with Alassane Ouattara. The Guinean military authorities had done everything to bring Alpha Condé back to his home. His entourage then feared that the junta would annoy the ex-president, who had, in a recording, called for mobilization against the authorities in place.

Authorities who took the bookmakers on the wrong foot. Because in a press release dated last Friday, the National Committee of the Rally for Development (CNRD) of Colonel Mamady Doumbouya indicated that Alpha Condé was now free to move.

A freedom that still seems very slim: under the guise of being "protected", Alpha Condé is always closely watched. The soldiers assure that the ex-president "will be able to receive, at his request, the members of his biological family, politicians, friends or relatives".

By affirming that "the dignity and integrity of the deposed president will always be preserved in accordance with his rank", the CNRD responds to the request of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which had asked the day after the putsch last September that Alpha Condé be released.

A gesture to please ECOWAS?

If the soldiers thus satisfy the "syndicate" of West African presidents, they have not succeeded in getting everyone to agree. Indeed, the victims of Alpha Condé and their relatives would like the former president to be tried. Quoted by RFI, Alsény Sall, spokesperson for the Guinean Human Rights Organization, indicates that "the first job that the CNRD should do is to submit its case to the courts, which is the only authority to decide. rights and freedoms of citizens”. Several complaints have been filed against Alpha Condé.

Other organizations, more political these, like the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC) believe that the soldiers released Alpha Condé to have a freer hand, in particular vis-à-vis the ECOWAS. But they ask that the transition not suffer from this decision. Especially since Condé can still have political activities.

Finally, on the side of the supporters of Alpha Condé, we cry out for the communication operation. Moreover, the former head of state would have refused to be photographed free, with his relatives. “Knowing her character, Alpha Condé does not want to be the foil of the junta, which announced her release to show that she was flexible”, affirms a close friend of the ex-president.

The timing also questions: it was this Monday that ECOWAS met, in particular to decide on possible sanctions against the Guinean soldiers. “The Guinean government is not acting under duress,” retorted the government spokesperson, who is threatening to leave ECOWAS.

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