{{Guinean authorities have said they will hold opposition party leaders responsible for any coup d’état after a Paris-based weekly claimed one was looming, as the country Saturday holds long-delayed legislative elections.}}
The Le Canard Enchainé report has also sparked angry reaction from the clergy and civil society organisations, while Guinea security minister Madifing Diane Wednesday claimed the country “was in danger” from outsiders plotting against it.
Local media in their Thursday editions, quoted the newspaper reporting that an imminent coup d’etat loomed over the incumbent Guinean government led by President Alpha Condé.
According to Le Canard, the coup plot had been put together by “French, South African and Israeli mercenaries with links to Paris and Africa and backed by a diamond magnate”.
“The unrest could be triggered as early as next week,” the newspaper added, quoting confidential correspondences from the American and European secret services.
The news comes at a moment when Guinea is grappling with ethnic and politically motivated violence compounded by belated legislative polls, the first in 10 years.
In response, Guinea’s official spokesman Albert Damantang Camara said the report should concern all Guineans “because nothing can justify an attack on the country”.
A justice ministry spokesman, Ibrahima Beavogui, said the government was taking the report seriously, adding that the states would conduct investigations before an official reaction.
Mr Diane cast suspicion on a multinational mining company operating in the country but did not explicitly name it.
Former prime minister, Cellou Dalein Diallo, who came second in the 2010 presidential poll, dismissed allegations of involvement as false.
He said that it was a ploy by the ruling party to clamp down on opposition members ahead of the legislative elections.
“My party is beyond reproach. I say it here, I refute and I challenge anyone. If there is massive fraud, let it be clear, our members will be out there to protest”.
NMG
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