Guinea, 2011 — military coup attempt

Event Summary

On 19 July 2011 an assassination and coup attempt targeted President Alpha Conde of Guinea, when heavily armed men attacked his private residence in Conakry with rockets and gunfire in the pre dawn hours. Conde had taken office only months earlier, in December 2010, as Guinea's first freely elected president, ending decades of authoritarian and military rule that had run from Ahmed Sekou Toure through Lansana Conte and the brief, brutal juntai of Moussa Dadis Camara. His election had been bitterly contested and left the country's ethnic and military tensions raw.

In the July 2011 attack, assailants shelled and stormed his residence in a sustained assault; Conde escaped unharmed, protected by his guard, and government forces repelled the attackers. The government blamed disgruntled elements of the military and arrested a number of officers, including senior figures, accusing them of plotting to kill the president and seize power. Conde survived and remained in office, going on to serve two terms and then controversially engineering a third, before he was finally overthrown in a military coupi in September 2021, a reminder of the enduring fragility of civilian rule in Guinea.