To cries of “
freedom!
freedom!
", Four figures of the mobilization against a third term of ousted Guinean President Alpha Condé were greeted triumphantly on their return from exile on Saturday at Conakry airport.
Read alsoEx-President Condé "will remain in Guinea," says the junta
"
Honor to the Patriots
" could be read in particular on signs brandished by the crowd of hundreds of people who waited for them for long hours, noted an AFP correspondent. Some wore red t-shirts of the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC), a coalition of political movements and civil society that led the protest against the third term, others wore the red, yellow and green of the Guinean flag.
“
We did not doubt for a single moment that we would win this fight,
” declared one of the activists returning from exile, Ibrahima Diallo. "
The FNDC will be there as a sentinel of democracy
" in the transition which opens after the putsch against Alpha Condé on September 5, he said. "
We want to support a democratic transition process that will lead to credible and transparent elections so that Guinea can turn to development,
" he explained.
Their return was greeted with cries of "
freedom
" and "
thank you to Colonel Doumbouya!"
", Referring to Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, head of the"
National Committee for Rally and Development
"(CNRD) which took power after overthrowing Alpha Condé.
Another activist returned from exile, Sékou Koundouno, expressed his "
relief that the people of Guinea got rid of the despot Alpha Condé who had taken the institutions as well as the army hostage
".
80 prisoners released
According to another of their comrades, rapper Djani Alpha, “
this transition is not just the transition of the CNRD, it is the transition of all the people of Guinea
”.
“
Let's not forget that for us to be here today, there are people who have fallen.
People have gone to prison, some have left but there are still some who are in prison,
”he stressed.
Some 80 detainees were released on September 7 by decision of the junta.
Read also Guinea reenacts the great classic of the military coup
The four FNDC activists then struggled to make their way through an increasingly large crowd to reach the Bambéto cemetery, in the outskirts of Conakry, where a ceremony of meditation was to be held for the dozens of those killed in the repression of the protests against the third term.
Alpha Condé had a new Constitution adopted by referendum in March 2020 and invoked this change in fundamental law to stand for re-election after two terms, despite months of blood-suppressed protest.
His re-election, which was vigorously contested by the opposition, was preceded and followed by numerous arrests.
