Guinean government officials have been barred from leaving the country until further notice while the curfew imposed in mining areas has been lifted.
Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya, a former French legionnaire officer and leader of the army unit that overthrew President Alpha Conde, said yesterday.
He told a gathering of Conde’s ministers, including the prime minister and top government officials, that they should also hand back their official vehicles.
“There will be no witch-hunt,” he said, a day after the coup which drew international condemnation and threats of sanctions.
The takeover in the West African country that holds the world’s largest bauxite reserves, an ore used to produce aluminium, sent prices of the metal sky-rocketing to a 10-year high yesterday over fears of further supply disruption in the downstream market. There was no indication of such disruption yet.
Light traffic resumed, and some shops reopened around the main administrative district of Kaloum in the capital, Conakry which witnessed heavy gunfire throughout Sunday as the special forces battled soldiers loyal to Conde. A military spokesman said on television that land air borders had also been reopened.
However, uncertainty remains. While the army unit appeared to have Conde in detention, telling the West African nation on state television that they had dissolved the government and constitution, other branches of the army are yet to publicly comment.
Doumbouya said on state television on Sunday that “poverty and endemic corruption” had driven his forces to remove Conde from office.
Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, reporting from Dakar in neighbouring Senegal, called yesterday’s meeting an “incredible scene” as the country’s powerful figures were brought inside the national parliament to be summoned by the new leader.
“What’s interesting in this scene is that he was there to both reassure them and threaten them,” Haque said.