CONAKRY, GUINEA (AP) – Former Guinean President Alpha Conde left the country for medical treatment in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after spending over four months in the custody of the military junta that overthrew him, witnesses said on Monday.
No details were given on his diagnosis, though witnesses at the airport in Conakry, the capital, confirmed that the 83-year-old former president’s plane was en route to Abu Dhabi.
There was no immediate confirmation from the junta-led transitional government, though officials announced earlier this month that Conde was not in good health and would be travelling abroad soon for care.
Conde’s ouster in September came less than a year after he ran and won a third term in office despite widespread protests. The ex-president had backed a constitutional referendum bending the term limit rules to do so.
The regional bloc known as ECOWAS and other members of the international community have called for Conde’s immediate release ever since he was detained in the September coup that overthrew him after more than a decade in power.
But Guinea’s new military rulers vowed that Conde would not be allowed to leave the country and seek exile. West African regional leaders put travel bans into place after the junta failed to release him. The financial assets of junta leaders also were frozen.
