The head of Guinea's armed forces was killed on Monday when the aircraft carrying him and five other senior military officials crashed close to the Liberian capital, Monrovia.
General Souleymane Kelefa Diallo, a staunch ally of Guinea's president, Alpha Conde, was on a security mission to Liberia. All six officials and five crew on board died. Liberia's defence minister, Brownie Samukai said the cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
Liberia's president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who visited the crash site in the company of Guinea's ambassador, declared a national day of mourning.
Diallo was one of the main architects of the reform of Guinea's military, which seized power in 2008. About 4,000 soldiers were forced to retire under a UN-backed scheme to slim the armed forces.
Conde's government has been trying to organise elections for May, the final step in the transition back to civilian rule and a prerequisite to unlock millions of dollars of frozen foreign aid. The opposition, alleging bias in the electoral authority, has called protests for Wednesday.
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