Fears of Torture of Forcibly Disappeared Opponents

On the evening of July 9, three members of the opposition coalition, National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (Front national pour la défense de la Constitution, FNDC), Oumar Sylla, (known as Foniké Menguè), Mamadou Billo Bah, and Mohamed Cissé, were watching football at Menguè’s home in Conakry, Guinea’s capital, when security forces forced their way in, arbitrarily detained the men, and transferred them to an unknown location. The authorities have yet to acknowledge their detention or disclose their whereabouts, despite being asked by lawyers representing the men. This amounts to enforced disappearance under international law.

Based on media reports and information shared with Human Rights Watch by members of the FNDC, dozens of soldiers, some of whom are believed to be special forces, gendarmes, and armed men in plain clothes, arbitrarily detained and repeatedly beat the three men before taking them first to the gendarmerie headquarters in Conakry and then to an army camp on Kassa island, off Conakry’s coast. An FNDC statement suggested the three men were being tortured during extrajudicial interrogations.