Within hours of the death of Guinea’s president in 2008, four officers trained by the German military launched a coup d’état. Led by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, who proudly wore the red beret and insignia of a German paratrooper, the plotters communicated discreetly in German. Following an assassination attempt, Camara was replaced in power by a French-trained paratrooper who had been his vice-president.
And so two officers trained by European states to enhance security and civilian control in their home countries took it upon themselves to seize power through violence. Now known as the “German coup”, this story is a warning
