About nine people have died in a gun battle after armed men charged into a jail in Guinea’s capital over the weekend and freed the former military ruler, Moussa Dadis Camara and other imprisoned army officers, according to the justice ministry’s report on Monday, November 6.
Authorities had discovered the bodies of three attackers, four members of the security forces and two other people after the Saturday morning’s prison break.
Six others are currently hospitalised with gunshot wounds, the statement added.
Meanwhile, military troops have searched houses and cars after the prison break-in, discovering the former president Camara and two of the escaped officers and had promptly confined them back in Conakry’s Central House prison the same day, officials reported.
However, the officials have reported that an escaped army officer still remains on the loose.
The clashes have highlighted the delicate security situation in the West African country, which is governed by a military junta that seized power in 2021.
So far, there have been eight such takeovers in West and Central Africa within the last three years.
The ministry statement, signed by Prosecutor General Yamoussa Conte, said Camara and the other escapees were under investigation for involuntary manslaughter and other violations.
Camara’s lawyer had previously dismissed hints that the former leader had planned the break-in and had remarked that Camara had been abducted from the facility by force.
Camara had spear headed a 2008 military coup and ruled Guinea for almost a year until he was injured in a December 2009 assassination attempt.
Since last year, he has been on trial alongside others accused of planning a stadium massacre and mass rape by Guinean security forces. A crime that saw 150 people killed during a pro-democracy rally on September 28, 2009.
Camara has meanwhile, denied responsibility, blaming the crimes on deviant soldiers.
