Activists Oumar Sylla and Mamadou Billo Bah have been “abducted” for three days by armed men close to the Guinean junta, and are receiving support from international organisations.
In Guinea, Oumar Sylla known as “Fonike Mengue” and Mamadou Billo Bah, members of the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC), have been under arrest since Tuesday 9 July.
Their arrest by “a group of heavily armed soldiers” has been described as a “kidnapping” by the protest group, which was dissolved by the military authorities in August 2022.
International human rights organisations and defenders are demanding the release of the two activists.
Denouncing their “secret detention in violation of international law,” Amnesty International said that “the Guinean authorities must immediately release” Fonike Mengue and Mamadou Billo Bah.
“Pending their release, the authorities must guarantee and ensure their safety, reveal their place of detention, allow them to consult a lawyer and receive family visits,” said Samira Daoud, Director of Amnesty International’s West and Central Africa office, condemning the military junta’s intensified repression of democratic voices in
Conakry.
“For several months now, the Guinean authorities have been stepping up their repression of peaceful dissent, with the suspension of media outlets, restrictions on internet access and the brutal repression of demonstrations, which has led to the deaths of at least 47 people in demonstrations as of 22 April 2024, according to Amnesty
International’s latest report,” she noted.
The Senegalese coalition of ‘Tournons La Page’, a movement fighting for democracy and change in Africa, also expressed its “profound indignation at the arbitrary arrest” of its comrades in Guinea.
“We note that there is no legal basis for this abduction and that their detention at the headquarters of the gendarmerie’s judicial investigations department is unjustified, given that to date they have still not been informed of the charges against them and have not had access to their lawyer,” she said, before demanding “their immediate and unconditional release” and an end to attacks on human rights defenders in this West African country.
“These young people from the Republic of Guinea are models and sources of inspiration for all young people in Africa through their courage, determination and dedication in defending the values of the constitution, freedoms and human rights,” said Alioune Tine, a human rights defender from Senegal and founder of the Afrikajom think tank.
He called on the head of the junta, Mamadi Doumbouya, to release Foniké Menguè and Mamadou Billo Bah, because these activists embody “the Guinean youth who contribute to the international influence” of the country.
ODL/ac/fss/as/APA