Lansana Conté

A 30-page confidential report to the internationally financed Special Court in Sierra Leone alleges that he masterminded an assassination attempt against Guinea's President Lansana Conté in January (AC Vol 46 No 3) plotted to overthrow the government of Côte d'Ivoire and broke the terms of his asylum in Nigeria by travelling to Burkina Faso on 26 February...

Yet in January immediately after the attempt to murder President Lansana Conté which the Special Court blames on Taylor Guinean officials pointed towards Condé's ally Antoine Gbokolo Soroumou (also named by the Special Court in Freetown) accusing him of recruiting 2 500 mercenaries from Burkina Faso Mali and Liberia...

Guinea's President Lansana Conté regularly claims to be the target of plots...

In volatile Guinea new Prime Minister Cellou Dalein Diallo appointed on 7 December will struggle against ailing President Lansana Conté's reluctance to reform...

Other notable absentees were Guinean President Lansana Conté virtually Gbagbo's last foreign ally and Mauritanian President Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya who accuses Burkina Faso of backing a coup attempt against him in August...

Claims by Guinean opposition politician Jean-Marie Doré of a 'secret deal' with President Lansana Conté to allow Guinean territory to be used were denied by Ivorian officials (AC Vol 45 No 14)...

Despite poor health President Lansana Conté keeps a highly personal grasp on power...

President Lansana Conté is no great fan of his Ivorian counterpart and claims by Guinean opposition politician Jean-Marie Doré of a secret deal between the two leaders were denied by Ivorian government officials...

The former Directeur de Cabinet of Ivorian ex-Premier-turned-opposition-leader Alassane Dramane Ouattara Touré represents at 59 a younger generation than President Lansana Conté and his veteran opponents Alpha Condé (66) and Bâ (71)...

Lansana Conté faces renewed opposition protests after his ostensible re-election in December for another seven-year term...