Commando operation in Guinea: reward offered for the capture of the last fugitive

The Guinean authorities on Wednesday offered a reward equivalent to more than 54,000 euros for the capture of the last former top official under the dictatorship of Moussa Dadis Camara still outside after being released from prison on Saturday in a commando operation.

Heavily armed men extracted Moussa Dadis Camara and three other prisoners from Conakry's central prison on Saturday. They are currently on trial for a massacre committed in 2009 under his presidency, one of the darkest pages in Guinean history.

The raid left at least nine people dead, according to the public prosecutor's office.

Captain Dadis Camara and two other prisoners were recaptured the same day.

Claude Pivi, one of the junta's strongmen who ruled Guinea between 2008 and 2009 under Captain Dadis Camara, of whom he was minister, is still "actively sought both nationally and internationally", Justice Minister Alphonse Charles Wright said in a statement on Wednesday.

The authorities are offering a reward of 500 million Guinean francs (54,100 euros) "to anyone who helps or facilitates (his) arrest", he said.

A toll-free number has been set up and special protection measures will be taken for this person, he said. He ordered prosecutors to "do everything possible" to find Mr. Pivi.

Dadis Camara, Pivi, and nine other former officials have been on trial since September 2022 for a litany of murders, acts of torture, rapes, and other abductions committed on September 28, 2009, and the following days by security forces in and around a stadium on the outskirts of Conakry, where tens of thousands of opposition supporters had gathered.