Newsmaker: Toppled Conde failed to live up to pledges in Guinea

FILE PHOTO: Guinean President Alpha Conde delivers a speech during a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the Allied landings in Provence in World War Two which helped liberate southern France, in Boulouris, France, August 15, 2019. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/Pool

(Reuters) - The apparent overthrow of President Alpha Conde in Guinea capped a steady slide from grace for the veteran opposition leader and human rights professor whom critics say failed to live up to pledges to deliver democratic restoration and ethnic reconciliation.

It was not entirely clear what had precipitated the army's move on Sunday against the 83-year-old Conde. A special forces commander said in a televised address that "poverty and endemic corruption" had driven his troops to act.