Guinea: Honour Promises to Protect Citizens’ Rights

Guinea

Despite pledging to respect human rights, deliver justice, and return Guinea to civilian rule, Mamady Doumbouyi’s government has failed to deliver on its promises and instead raised concerns about rights violations in the country.

Development Diaries reports that the military authorities in Guinea have cracked down on the opposition, media, and peaceful dissent, and have failed to keep their promises to restore civilian rule by December 2024.

Recall that security forces used excessive force, including tear gas and gunfire, to disperse those who defied the ban on protests imposed in May 2022 by the National Committee for Reconciliation and Development (CNRD).

This crackdown has led to the death of dozens of protesters and other residents of Conakry, Guinea’s capital, since January 2024.

‘When Gen. Mamady Doumbouya overthrew his autocratic predecessor, Alpha Condé, he pledged to rebuild the state, respect human rights, and deliver justice’, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), Ilaria Allegrozzi, said in a statement.

‘Yet for the last two years, his government has largely carried on where Condé left off, killing, intimidating, and silencing critics, and torturing and disappearing those suspected of working with the political opposition’.

Research by HRW indicates that security forces used lethal force leading to the deaths of at least nine people, including one woman and four children ages 9 to 17, during protests in Conakry between January and September 2024.

The military authorities have jammed and suspended media outlets, threatened, and arbitrarily arrested journalists.

Members of the opposition and civil society have raised concerns about the absence of a clear electoral timeline and breaches of the transitional charter.

In its Freedom in the World 2024 report, Freedom House scored Guinea 30 out of a possible 100, describing the country as ‘not free’.

With Guinea being a party to the African Union Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, Development Diaries calls on the authorities in the country to cease targeting opposition politicians and civil society activists, and ensure a swift return to democratic rule.

Source: HRW

Photo source: HRW

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