Former Guinean prime minister and opposition leader Sidya Toure has died in Paris at the age of 81, sources close to his family told AFP. He died on Friday at the American Hospital of Paris, where he had been hospitalised for about two weeks after falling ill in Abidjan.

Toure served as Guinea's prime minister from July 1996 to March 1999 under former president Lansana Conte. His tenure focused on administrative and economic reforms and closer ties with international financial institutions.

After leaving government, he led the Union of Republican Forces from 2000 and became a leading opposition figure. He contested the presidency in 2010 and 2015 without success, and had lived in exile in Abidjan since the September 2021 military coup that brought Mamady Doumbouya to power.

Opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo called Toure 'a friend and companion in the struggle', while Guinea's current prime minister Amadou Oury Bah remembered him as a prominent figure in the country's political life for three decades.

His death comes as Guinea's opposition faces a severe crackdown, with the UFR among 40 parties dissolved in March and its leaders excluded from last December's presidential vote.