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U.S. condemns assassination attempt on Guinean president

20 July 2011 21:59 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The U.S. State Department on Wednesday strongly condemned early Tuesday’s assassination attempt on Guinean President Alpha Conde, who survived a rocket attack on his residence, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Conde, who was inaugurated in Dec. 2010 as Guinea’s first democratically elected president since independence in 1958, has been working to "establish the foundations of democratic institutions and practice," the State Department said in a statement.

The statement said the violent acts undermined "democracy and the rule of law" and "threaten the stability of the region."

The U.S. called on the Guineans to remain committed to the " principles of democracy and to express disagreements through peaceful means."

Guinea’s former army chief Nouhou Thiam was reportedly arrested following Tuesday’s attack, which was suspected to have been carried out by some disgruntled soldiers at 3:00 a.m local time and lasted more than an hour.

The pre-dawn attack put to test the West African country, which is scrambling with the shadow of coups since independence from France in 1958.

Conde, 73, was elected late last year to end a long-standing crisis triggered by a military coup, following the death of the West African country’s President Lansana Conte in December 2008.