Death of Guinea’s president sparks coup

A GROUP of soldiers has launched a coup in the west African state of Guinea, hours after the death of 74-year-old strongman President Lansana Conte.

The mineral-rich country was left in turmoil as the coup plotters said they had suspended the constitution and dissolved all state institutions while the government insisted it was still in charge and ordered them to stand down.

“The institutions of the republic have shown themselves to be incapable of resolving the crises which have been confronting the country,” Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, the coup’s frontman, announced on state-run Radio Conakry.