Former Guinean Leader Flees Prison Amidst Tightened Security Investigations

The Guinean Attorney General is investigating the circumstances surrounding the escape of the country's former ruler, Dadis Camara, from prison.

Guinean prosecutors are conducting extensive investigations to determine how Conakry Central Prison was stormed early Saturday, leading to Camara's escape.

Security sources in Guinea reported that the private lawyer of the escaped former ruler, Jacquomy Haba, was summoned along with the attorneys of two of his associates who were jailed with him on charges related to the 2009 election massacres, and who had been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Sources in the Conakry Attorney General's office stated that the former ruler's lawyer was forcibly taken from his cell, denying knowledge of the escape plan that occurred at four in the morning.

The lawyer also stated that his client's life is in danger, referring to the man who seized power in a military coup in December 2008.

The Guinean army and security forces are conducting widespread search operations to apprehend the fugitive ruler.

Border control has been tightened to prevent his exit from Guinea and secure his capture, and all Guinean airports have halted flights to tighten the noose on the fugitive former ruler after his imprisonment, which began in September 2022 following a trial for his and ten of his military companions' involvement in the 2009 massacres that resulted in 156 Guineans killed and 109 women raped, at a mass demonstration at Conakry Stadium on September 28, 2009, as established by a United Nations investigative committee at the time, as well as other instances of torture and extrajudicial killings.

Masked gunmen stormed Conakry Central Prison early today, exchanged gunfire with the guards, reached the cell of the former president, and took him to an unknown location.

Prison guards reported to the Attorney General's office that the attackers were highly armed, trained, and had prior knowledge of the location from which they abducted him and two former members of his regime.

Guinea, a member of the West African ECOWAS bloc with a population of 14 million, witnessed a military coup in September 2021 when Colonel Mamady Doumbouya and his men stormed the presidential palace and overthrew the civilian President Alpha Condé by force.