Touré participated in a major opposition protest in Conakry on 28 September 2009; the protest was directed against the suspected intent of junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara to stand as a candidate in the January 2010 presidential election. The military attacked the protesters, killing many of them; Touré suffered a serious head injury and was hospitalized. Although the junta barred opposition leaders from speaking to the press, Touré covertly phoned the BBC's Focus on Africa from a hospital bathroom and gave his account of events; he said that soldiers "just started to shoot people directly ... They tried to kill us." Touré was released from custody on 29 September and returned to his home (which was also the UFR headquarters), discovering that it had been ransacked. On 1 October 2009 he said that the opposition could not talk to the government in the wake of such violence and that planned elections needed to be held under a neutral authority. He rejected the junta's offer of a national unity government, saying that the people were mourning and were in a state of shock from the events of 28 September; according to Touré, the immediate priority was to determine who gave the order to open fire on the protesters.