Last Friday, The chief of the junta, Captain Dadis Moussa Camara, appeared emaciated with a long scar on the right side of the head. It was his first public outing since an assassination attempt by his aide on December 3rd, said the AFP.

He was wearing civilian clothes with a jacket over beige linen trousers, with spectacles. This contrasted with those held by parachutists with large sunglasses and red beret that he loved to wear when appearing in the public before December 3rd.

He walked alone, without help, but slowly with a frozen face. He did not speak during the ceremony; simply signed the document ending the crisis in Guinea.

Captain Camara, who is 44, arrived without warning on Tuesday evening in the Burkinabe capital, after more than a month in hospital in Morocco following a gunshot wound in the head during an attempted assassination by his aide.

Upon his arrival on Tuesday night on a military base in Ouagadougou by a special flight from Morocco, he was "supported by two people" out of the plane, walked "hardly". He was dressed in civilian clothes and wearing spectacles, according to a witness.

"He is lucid and speaks", said a source from the presidency of Burkina Faso. The most alarming rumors about his health had circulated in recent weeks. Before his arrival in Burkina Faso, he had made no public appearance.

Dadis is experiencing difficulty walking and speaking, but he is much better, had confirmed a western source.

The head of the junta had been evacuated to Morocco aboard a plane in Burkina Faso, with a Senegalese doctor on board, on December 4th, more than 12 hours after injury, denying the evening of December 3rd an aircraft put at his disposal by the Senegalese president.

Under the Ouagadougou agreement, signed on Friday, Dadis Camara "has voluntarily taken recovery time while remaining available to contribute to the transition. The text does not specify whether he will remain in Burkina or not. For the moment he is living in a villa in the most beautiful city called Ouagadougou 2000.

The international community, France and the United States feared above all a return captain Camara who had been blamed with others by UN investigators for his participation in slaughter of more than 150 opponents on 28 September in Conakry.


Mamadou Dian Donghol Diallo
The africanews reporter in Conakry