We were appalled to learn that Mamadou Billo Bah, coordinator of TLP-Guinea and head of the branches and mobilization of the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC), and Oumar Sylla alias “Foniké Menguè”, National Coordinator of the FNDC, were abducted on the night of July 9-10, 2024. Both were arrested at their home in Conakry by armed hooded soldiers, some in civilian clothes.

We note that this abduction has no legal basis, and their detention at the headquarters of the Gendarmerie’s Judicial Investigations Department is unjustified, given that to date they have still not been informed of the charges against them, nor have they had access to their lawyer. We therefore demand their immediate and unconditional release.

This is not the first time that the transitional authorities have carried out arbitrary arrests. Numerous human rights defenders and members of the FNDC Guinée are regular victims. Mamadou Billo Bah and Oumar Sylla have already been detained for 4 and 10 months respectively since the September 2021 coup d’état, and were finally released and acquitted in May 2023. The resumption of arrests is worrying, and comes at a time when civil society organizations are mobilizing for the restoration of unjustly withdrawn media broadcasting frequencies, and to denounce the excesses of the military transition.

The signatory organizations also call on the authorities to cease their attacks on human rights defenders and to guarantee the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association in the country, in accordance with the fundamental texts and international commitments undertaken by Guinea.