Heavy gunfire erupted in the heart of Conakry Tuesday, February 10, 2026, morning, centered around the city’s central prison in the Kaloum administrative district. The sustained shooting, which began shortly before 09:00 GMT and lasted for over thirty minutes, sent residents fleeing in panic and forced a temporary lockdown of the neighborhood that houses the presidential palace and several government ministries.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing hooded, heavily armed men in military attire arriving at the prison in unmarked vehicles. According to local sources and reports from Xinhua, the armed group successfully breached the facility to extract Commander Toumba Diakite, the former presidential guard chief who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2024 for his role in the 2009 stadium massacre. Diakite was reportedly led away to an unknown destination, though the military junta has yet to issue an official statement confirming his status or the identity of the attackers.
The Guinean special forces quickly deployed armored vehicles and machine-gun-mounted carriers to the Coronthie neighborhood, blocking all major access roads leading to the prison. While calm has reportedly been restored and traffic has resumed in the central district, the atmosphere remains extremely tense. Three ambulances were seen leaving the prison grounds shortly after the shooting ceased, though no official casualty figures have been released by the Ministry of Justice or the military leadership.
This incident marks a serious breach of security in a city that has seen similar jailbreak attempts in recent years. In 2023, armed commandos briefly freed former President Moussa Dadis Camara from the same facility during a raid that left nine people dead. This latest eruption of violence underscores the persistent fragility of Guinea’s transition under the military junta led by General Mamadi Doumbouya, as rival factions within the security forces continue to clash over high-profile detainees.
