Plane Carrying Guinea’s Ex-junta Chief Diverts to Ghana
A plane has landed at Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport (KIA) carrying the former junta chief of Guinea, Moussa Dadis Camara.
Camara was heading back to Conakry to campaign for his presidential bid in October but authorities in Ivory Coast, where he was supposed to make a layover, denied him landing rights and had to divert to Ghana Wednesday.
Camara, who is on exile in Burkina Faso, having survived an assassination attempt a year after taking power, on Wednesday left Ouagadougou on a flight to Guinea with a planned stop in Abidjan, the AFP reported.
According to a spokesman for Camara’s Patriotic Front for Democracy and Development (FPDD) Maxime Manimou, the plane was blocked from landing in Abidjan and forced to land in Ghana.
The AFP quoted Manimou to have said all passengers "were asked to get off the plane at the Accra airport", before being allowed to reboard, with the exception of Dadis Camara, his lawyer and bodyguard.
He claimed Guinean authorities are scheming to block Camara's ambitions from becoming a president.
However Guinea's government spokesman Albert Damantang Camara denied any involvement in blocking the plane from landing in Abidjan, the report said.
The AFP said the move angered scores of Camara's supporters waiting for him in Conakry, who blocked access to the airport's parking and threw stones at police who fired tear gas to disperse them, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.
Camara's rule is best remembered for a massacre in September 2009 when security forces opened fire on a crowd protesting the junta, leaving 157 dead and horrific scenes of sexual violence.
Camara - who also delivered televised diatribes on "The Dadis show" in which he humiliated opponents and foreign diplomats -- was last month charged in Conakry over the massacre.
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| Guinea President Alpha Conde does not want Camara back in the West African state. |
Camara was heading back to Conakry to campaign for his presidential bid in October but authorities in Ivory Coast, where he was supposed to make a layover, denied him landing rights and had to divert to Ghana Wednesday.
Camara, who is on exile in Burkina Faso, having survived an assassination attempt a year after taking power, on Wednesday left Ouagadougou on a flight to Guinea with a planned stop in Abidjan, the AFP reported.
According to a spokesman for Camara’s Patriotic Front for Democracy and Development (FPDD) Maxime Manimou, the plane was blocked from landing in Abidjan and forced to land in Ghana.
The AFP quoted Manimou to have said all passengers "were asked to get off the plane at the Accra airport", before being allowed to reboard, with the exception of Dadis Camara, his lawyer and bodyguard.
He claimed Guinean authorities are scheming to block Camara's ambitions from becoming a president.
However Guinea's government spokesman Albert Damantang Camara denied any involvement in blocking the plane from landing in Abidjan, the report said.
The AFP said the move angered scores of Camara's supporters waiting for him in Conakry, who blocked access to the airport's parking and threw stones at police who fired tear gas to disperse them, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.
Camara's rule is best remembered for a massacre in September 2009 when security forces opened fire on a crowd protesting the junta, leaving 157 dead and horrific scenes of sexual violence.
Camara - who also delivered televised diatribes on "The Dadis show" in which he humiliated opponents and foreign diplomats -- was last month charged in Conakry over the massacre.
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