A social media image appears to show President Alpha Conde surrounded by soldiers.

(CNN)A Guinean military officer broadcast a statement Sunday announcing that Guinea’s Constitution has been dissolved in an apparent coup.

“We will no longer entrust politics to a man. We will entrust it to the people. We come only for that; it is the duty of a soldier, to save the country,” Guinean army officer Mamady Doumbouya says in the video.
An adviser to President Alpha Conde told CNN that Conde is under arrest and that a coup has taken place in the West African country.

    The location of the 83-year-old, who won a heavily disputed election last year, is unclear.

      In the video, Doumbouya — wearing a special forces uniform — says they have arrested Conde and suspended the constitution, the government and all other institutions. He also announced the closing of land and air borders. The video has been widely circulated and reported by local media.

      Curfew declared, former ministers summoned

      In a later update that was broadcast on state TV, military officers declared a nationwide curfew and said Conde was unharmed.

      Takeover condemned

      The US State Department warned that the apparent coup could make it hard for Guinea’s international partners to support it.
      “Violence and any extra-constitutional measures will only erode Guinea’s prospects for peace, stability, and prosperity,” the department said in a statement Sunday. “These actions could limit the ability of the United States and Guinea’s other international partners to support the country as it navigates a path toward national unity and a brighter future for the Guinean people.”
      In a statement published Sunday, the African Union (AU) condemned what it called a “power grab.”
      AU Chairperson H.E. Felix Tshisekedi and the chairperson of the AU Commission, H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, asked for the “immediate release of President Alpha Conde,” according to the statement.
      Guinea confirms West Africa's first case of rare, Ebola-like Marburg virus disease
      United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also called for Conde’s release, as reports of the apparent coup unfolded.
      “I am personally following the situation in Guinea very closely. I strongly condemn any takeover of the government by force of the gun and call for the immediate release of President Alpha Conde,” Guterres said in a tweet Sunday.

        Conde won the presidency in 2010, taking control from a military junta that had been in power since 2008. The 2010 presidential elections were the first in the republic’s 52-year history.
        The apparent coup attempt in Guinea follows a successful coup in Mali in August 2020, when the military forced out the elected government.
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