Leading member of Guinea government dies from coronavirus

By : AFP

Date: 19 April 2020 3:34pm WAT

People wait outside a polling station in Bissau early on November 24, 2019, as part of the presidential election in Guinea-Bissau. - Some 700,000 voters are registered for the November 24 poll, with indicative results due early next week. Guinea-Bissau has suffered four coups and a string of political assassinations since independence from Portugal in 1974. (Photo by JOHN WESSELS / AFP)

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A top government official in Guinea and close ally of President Alpha Conde has died from the new coronavirus, the government said Sunday.

Sekou Kourouma, who was secretary-general of the government and a former minister, was taken ill last week and died in Conakry on Saturday.

“Several senior state officials (have died) as a result of complications related to COVID-19,” the government said in a statement.

At least two other officials have died of COVID-19 — the president of the electoral commission Salif Kebe and Victor Traore, a former director of Interpol in Guinea.

Guinea has officially reported 518 cases of coronavirus.

Five people have died, according to statistics released by the National Agency for Health Security on Sunday.

In spite of significant natural resources, Guinea remains a poor country where the state of the health system is causing concern in the face of the pandemic.

The country was severely affected by the Ebola outbreak, which killed 2,500 people between 2013 and 2016.

Conde has ordered the wearing of masks from April 18 to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Guineans are also facing a nighttime curfew, the closing of schools, borders and places of worship as well as restrictions on gatherings.