Guinea opposition figure and former PM Toure dies in Paris

Sidya Toure, former prime minister and a leading opposition figure in Guinea where dissenting voices and political parties have been stifled, has died at age 81, sources close to his family told AFP.

Toure had been leading one of the country's major opposition parties, the Union of Republican Forces (UFR), from exile in Ivory Coast.

UFR was among 40 political parties dissolved in March in a major crackdown on civil liberties under the country's longtime strongman Mamady Doumbouya.

Toure died Friday in Paris after several decades at the forefront of Guinean public life.

He had been hospitalised at the American Hospital of Paris for some two weeks after falling ill in Abidjan, sources close to his family, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern for their safety, told AFP.

Toure had lived in Abidjan since leaving Guinea following the September 2021 military coup that brought Doumbouya to power.

Doumbouya was subsequently elected president of the west African nation last December in a vote that did not include any significant opposition such as the UFR or the country's two other main opposition parties, the UFDG and RPG.

UFDG leader Cellou Dalein Diallo, who also lives in exile, regretted losing "a friend and companion in the struggle" for Guinea, in a statement posted to Facebook.

Toure, he said, shared the same dream of transforming "our country, with all its vast potential, into a prosperous economy governed by the principles of democracy and the rule of law".

Guinean president Lansana Conte, in power between 1984 and 2008, had appointed Toure as prime minister in July 1996, a role he served in until March 1999.

His tenure as prime minister was marked by administrative and economic reforms, as well as efforts to strengthen Guinea's relations with international financial institutions.

After leaving the government, Toure became head of the UFR in 2000. He gradually became a leading figure opposing Conte and subsequent governments.

Toure ran for president as the UFR candidate in 2010 and 2015, losing both times.

Born in 1945 in Ivory Coast, he also spent part of his career there, particularly in its economic and financial administration.

Former president Alpha Conde, under whom Toure served despite a number of disagreements, wrote in a statement that it remained "deeply regrettable that a man who gave so much to his country should have endured the ordeal of exile at the end of his life".

Current Guinean Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah remembered Toure in a post on X as a "pragmatic reformer" and "a prominent figure in Guinea's political life for three decades".