Six months to the day without news from Guinean opponents Foniké Menguè and Mamadou Billo Bah. On July 9 in Conakry, the leaders of the pro-democracy movement FNDC were kidnapped from their homes in the middle of the night.
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The FNDC pro-democracy movement and opposition parties point the finger at the general’s junta Mamadi Doumbouya. According to testimonies, it was elements of the army who kidnapped the two Guinean activists, Foniké Menguè and Mamadou Billo Bah, on July 9.
The Guinean authorities claim to have opened an investigation into their disappearance, but since then, there has never been the slightest judicial communication on the progress of the search.
Men in uniform
This July 9 evening, Mamadou Billo Bah and Foniké Menguè are at the latter’s home in the Minière district of Conakry. They are discussing preparations for an upcoming demonstration when men in civilian clothes and uniforms arrive, identified by families and neighbors as gendarmes and members of the Special Forces. The men in uniform forcibly drag the opponents out of the home, under the helpless gaze of their wives and local residents, before transporting them to an unknown location.
In the days that followed, condemnations of African activists such as those of the Y en a Marre and AfricTivistes movements, quickly joined by the UN, theEuropean UnionGreat Britain and UNITED STATESamong others.
At the same period, the young Mohamed Cissé, kidnapped with Mamadou Billo Bah and Foniké Menguè while wanting to protect them, gave a video account of the torture he claims to have suffered, within the confines of the presidency itself. Today hidden in Dakar, Mohamed Cissé still lives in fear of reprisals.
Also readGuinea: an activist from the FNDC movement recounts the kidnapping of leaders Foniké Menguè and Billo Bah
Last year, other civilians were kidnapped in Conakry, such as journalist Habib Marouane Camara and the former Secretary General of the Ministry of Mines Saadou Nimagastill not found.