“A Guinean army colonel seized control of state television Sunday and declared that President Alpha Conde’s government had been dissolved in the West African nation, an announcement that came after hours of heavy gunfire near the presidential palace.

“The dramatic developments Sunday bore all the hallmarks of a West African coup d’etat. After seizing the airwaves, the mutinous soldiers vowed to restore democracy, closed the country’s borders and gave themselves a name: The National Committee of Gathering and Development.

“However, the Defense Ministry put out a statement of its own Sunday, saying that the attack on the presidential palace in the capital of Conakry had been repelled.

“Col. Mamadi Doumbouya sat, draped in a Guinean flag with a half dozen other soldiers in uniform alongside him, as he read a statement Sunday on the uprising on state television, vowing: “The duty of a soldier is to save the country.””

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