A coalition of 25 local and international human rights organisations has called on the Guinean authorities to immediately disclose the whereabouts of two civil society activists who were forcibly disappeared a year ago.
The activists, Oumar Sylla and Mamadou Billo Bah, both affiliated with the now-dissolved Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC), were abducted on 9 July 2024 from a residence in Conakry by armed men believed to be linked to state forces. Their fate remains unknown.
In a joint statement issued on Tuesday, the rights groups urged the transitional authorities in Guinea to end what they described as a “climate of fear and enforced silence” and to hold perpetrators accountable through fair judicial processes.
“We urge the Guinean authorities to end the intolerable silence surrounding the fate of Oumar Sylla and Mamadou Billo Bah. There is no indication that serious investigations have been conducted into their disappearance,” the statement read.
According to a third FNDC member who was abducted alongside the two men and released the following day, the activists were taken to the Los Islands archipelago off the Guinean coast, where they were allegedly subjected to interrogation and torture. The authorities have consistently denied any involvement in their detention.
The FNDC, a prominent civic movement that opposed constitutional amendments allowing former president Alpha Condé to seek a third term, was officially dissolved in 2022 following the military takeover. Sylla, the group’s former national coordinator, had called for a protest march on 11 July 2024 against media restrictions and the rising cost of living days before his abduction.
Guinea’s prosecutor general had announced the launch of a “comprehensive investigation” into a number of disappearances, including that of the two FNDC members. However, no official updates have been provided on the progress of those investigations.
Rights advocates have warned of an uptick in abductions and acts of repression in the country since the military coup in September 2021. The organisations are calling for concrete steps to end enforced disappearances and ensure victims and their families receive access to truth and justice.
