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📍 Conakry, July 9, 2025 — A coalition of 25 Guinean and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, has called on Guinea’s military authorities to urgently disclose the whereabouts of civil society activists Oumar Sylla and Mamadou Billo Bah, who were forcibly disappeared exactly one year ago.
The activists, both senior members of the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC), were arrested on July 9, 2024, by armed men believed to be part of Guinea’s special forces. According to eyewitness accounts and testimony from a third FNDC member who was released shortly after, Sylla and Bah were interrogated and tortured on the Loos archipelago, off the coast of Conakry. Their fate remains unknown, and authorities have denied holding them.
🛑 Pattern of Abductions and Silence The coalition’s statement condemned the government’s “unbearable silence” and lack of transparency, noting that no meaningful investigation has been conducted despite a public commitment from the Prosecutor General in July 2024. The FNDC, which was dissolved by the transitional government in 2022, had been vocal in opposing constitutional changes and human rights abuses under former President Alpha Condé.
📉 Escalating Repression The disappearances of Sylla and Bah are part of a broader pattern of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions targeting journalists, lawyers, and activists:
- Journalist Habib Marouane Camara was abducted in December 2024; his whereabouts remain unknown
- Activist Abdoul Sacko was abducted and tortured in February 2025
- Lawyer Mohamed Traoré was abducted in June 2025 and found severely injured
The Guinean Bar Association has denounced a “climate of terror,” citing threats against legal professionals and opposition figures. Some have reportedly gone into hiding or changed residences due to intimidation.
📜 International Legal Obligations Rights groups emphasized that Guinea is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which prohibits arbitrary detention and guarantees the right to freedom of expression. They urged Guinea to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and to ensure fair trials and remedies for victims and their families.
For further details, see FIDH and OMCT, Jurist, and Amnesty International.
Excerpts from jurist.org article by Nicole D’Souza | U. Auckland Law School, NZ
