GUINEA JUNTA FACES CALLS TO FREE OPPOSITION LEADER

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Agency Report

Dozens of members of civil society and political parties in Guinea on Monday demanded the immediate release of an opposition leader arrested for allegedly “insulting” the head of the military government.

The detention of Aliou Bah, who heads the Liberal Democratic Movement (MoDel), is the latest in a crackdown on freedoms by the junta of General Mamady Doumbouya, who overthrew civilian president Alpha Conde in a 2021 coup.

Some 150 academics and journalists said in a statement sent to AFP on Monday that the “arbitrary” arrest of Bah was “part of the policy of systematic elimination of people opposed to the arbitrariness and excesses of” the junta’s ruling National Committee of Reconciliation and Development (CNRD).

“We want to say loud and clear that we reject terror,” the statement said.

“We want to reiterate with force and conviction our indignation at the continuing brutality of power.”

A foundation of innovation for democracy, in a statement signed by Cameroonian historian Achille Mbembe, also protested at the “spectacular return” to the region of “serious human rights violations… the will to silence and to push into exile all dissident voices”.

This comes, it added, amid an increase in kidnappings and forced disappearances.

Bah was arrested on Thursday as he was travelling to neighbouring Sierra Leone with two colleagues.

Since the junta took power, many opposition figures have been detained, brought before the courts or forced into exile.

Two prominent anti-junta activists have been missing since being detained by security forces in July.

Two former high-ranking officers and a doctor have died in unclear circumstances in recent months after having been arrested.

A journalist from the Lerevelateur224 website was also arrested earlier this month by men in uniform in the suburbs of the capital, Conakry, and his whereabouts are unknown, his lawyers and a press union said.

Under international pressure, the junta pledged to hand power back to a civilian government by the end of 2024 but has since made clear it will not.

AFP