Guinea: One year after the enforced disappearance of Front National de Défense de la Constitution (FNDC) activists, abductions increase in a ‘climate of terror’

Guinean authorities must urgently reveal the fate and whereabouts of National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (Front national de défense de la Constitution – FNDC) activists Oumar Sylla and Mamadou Billo Bah, who were forcibly disappeared a year ago, and ensure that those suspected to be responsible for the abductions and enforced disappearances in Guinea are brought to justice in fair trial and victims and family members of victims are provided with access to justice and effective remedies, said 25 Guinean and international human rights organizations.

“We call on the Guinean authorities to break their unbearable silence regarding the fate of the two FNDC activists. There is no indication that they have carried out investigations to find the two activists who have been missing for a year,” the human rights organizations said today.

Mamadou Billo Bah and Oumar Sylla, known as Foniké Menguè, were arrested on 9 July 2024 at the latter’s home in Conakry by armed men, before allegedly being taken by special forces to the Loos archipelago. They were interrogated and tortured, according to a third member of FNDC who was abducted with the two others and released the day after. The authorities have denied holding them and their fate remains unknown to this day.

The FNDC, a civil society movement calling for a return to civilian rule, was disbanded in 2022. Oumar Sylla, its national coordinator had called for demonstrations on 11 July 2024 against, among other things, repression of the media and the high cost of living.

Since the Prosecutor General’s announcement on 17 July 2024 of the opening of ‘thorough and complete’ investigations into several abductions, including those of Oumar Sylla and Mamadou Billo Bah, no information has been made public about their progress.

Multiplication of cases of abductions and disappearances

Journalist Habib Marouane Camara, managing director of Le Révélateur news website, was abducted in Lambanyi, a commune of Conakry, on 3 December 2024 by men in uniform, according to witnesses. On 6 December 2024, the Dixinn public prosecutor’s office declared that the ‘arrest was carried out without orders from the constituted authorities and outside the cases provided for by law’, announcing that an investigation was underway. To date, there has been no news of the journalist’s whereabouts.

“Since these announcements, no information has been made public by the authorities. We call on them to shed full light on the cases of abductions and disappearances in the country by conducting prompt, independent, and transparent investigations into these cases. We also call on the authorities to ratify without reservation the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance,” said the human rights organizations.

In addition to these cases, there have been abductions followed by acts of torture on individuals known for their critical views. On 19 February 2025, the national coordinator of the Forum of Social Forces of Guinea (Forum des forces sociales de Guinée), Abdoul Sacko, was abducted and found the same day, according to his lawyers ‘in a critical state, tortured and abandoned by his abductors in the bush’.

Lawyer Mohamed Traoré suffered the same fate in June 2025. The former President of the Guinean Bar Association has testified that he was ‘subjected to abuse’ after being abducted from his home on the night of 20 to 21 June by armed men. The Bar Association reported that he had been found ‘with his back covered in wounds’. On 23 June, the public prosecutor again announced the opening of an ‘in-depth investigation into the facts’.

‘A climate of terror’

Following the abduction of Abdoul Sacko, the Bar Association denounced ‘the climate of terror that is gradually taking hold and […] the total lack of reaction from the judicial authorities’.

Our organizations spoke to lawyers and political actors who say they have been threatened.

A leader of an opposition party has been in hiding for several months, after receiving threats by phone and after people in plain clothes went to his home in his absence, making threats. Another politician said that he frequently changed his residence and route after receiving threats.

A lawyer said: ‘Since I started defending certain people critical of the government, I have received at least four calls confirming that I am on the list of people whose abduction is planned’.

A human rights defender said he had been alerted after his statements denouncing the abduction of Mohamed Traoré: “I have received two calls from people I know in the judicial system urging me to leave my home because I would be next on the list according to their information. I take this very seriously, I make sure I’m never alone”.

“We call on the Guinean authorities to respect their international human rights obligations to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the human rights of everyone in the country, as they have undertaken to do before the United Nations Human Rights Council in April 2025 during the Universal Periodic Review, in particular the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and the rights of human rights defenders,” said the Guinean and international human rights organizations.

Signatories

• Action pour des Personnes Vulnérables (APV)
• Alliance des Femmes Leaders pour la Parité en Guinée (AFLPAG)
• Alliances des Médias pour les Droits Humains en Guinée (AMDH)
• Amnesty International
• Assistance Justice Aux Droits des Enfants et Femmes (AJDEF)
• Association des Blogueurs de Guinée (ABLOGUI)
• Association des Victimes, Parents et Amis des évènements du 28 septembre 2009 (AVIPA)
• Avocats Sans Frontières Guinée (ASF Guinée)
• Centre Africain de Formation et d’Information sur les Droits de l’Homme et de l’Environnement (CAFIDHE)
• Conseil Consultatif des Enfants et Jeunes de Guinée (CCEJG)
• Coalition des ONG de protection et de promotion des Droits de l’Enfant, Lutte contre la Traite  (COLTE/CDE)
• Convention Guinéenne des Droits de l’Homme (COGUIDH)
• Convergence des Jeunes Leaders pour la Paix et la Démocratie (COJELPAID)
• Coordination des Jeunes Cadres Volontaires pour le Futur (CJCVF)
• Fédération Guinéenne pour la Promotion des Associations des Personnes Handicapées (FEGUIPAH)
• Fédération internationale pour les droits humains (FIDH), dans le cadre de l’Observatoire pour la protection des défenseur.es des droits humains
• Forum Civil Guinéen
• Jeune Action pour la Santé et le Développement (JASD)
• Leadership Jeunes pour la Paix et le Développement en Afrique (LEJEPAD)
• Organisation Guinéenne de Défense des Droits de l’Homme et du citoyen (OGDH)
• Organisation mondiale contre la torture (OMCT), dans le cadre de l’Observatoire pour la protection des défenseur.es des droits humains
• Organisation Secours aux Handicapés de Guinée (OSH Guinée)
• Union pour le Bien-Être des Personnes Atteintes d’Albinisme (UBPAAG)
• Women of Africa (WAFRICA Guinée)
• Women Hope Guinée (WHP)

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Amnesty International.