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Amnesty International says security forces in Guinea fired live rounds at protesters during post-election unrest that have killed at least 10 people in the country. In a statement on Sunday, the …
Amnesty International says security forces in Guinea fired live rounds at protesters during post-election unrest that have killed at least 10 people in the country.
In a statement on Sunday, the United Kingdom-based rights group said witness statements and video analysis confirmed protesters were targeted.
Amnesty also condemned internet disruptions during the deadly violence.
President Alpha Conde, 82, won a controversial third presidential term – which requires confirmation by the Constitutional Court – with 59.49 percent of the votes, Guinea’s electoral commission said on Saturday.
But the country’s leading opposition politician Cellou Dalein Diallo has disputed the result and claimed victory himself a day after the contested October 18 poll.
He said he has evidence of fraud and plans to file a complaint with the Constitutional Court.
Diallo’s victory claim triggered clashes between his supporters and security forces across the country.
The opposition puts the one-week death toll at 27 people – a figure that cannot be independently verified at this time.
Amnesty said it was still analysing information but added that based on what it has already gathered, coupled with local news reports, “dozens of people might have been killed”.
In a video of recent unrest in the capital Conakry, the group said a security officer shot people at very close range, “without any apparent threat to his life [and] in violation of international rules on the use of firearms by armed forces”.
Amnesty also analysed pictures taken in the northern Labe region – a Diallo stronghold – which showed bullet casings from AK-47 assault rifles.
It said Guinean security forces deployed in the region often carry such rifles, although the government denies this.
“Authorities must stop the use of firearms,” Fabien Offner, an Amnesty researcher, said in the statement.
“If criminal culpability is found, those suspected must be brought to justice in fair trials before civilian courts,” he said.
Guinea’s government was not immediately available for comment.
Separately, Amnesty also criticised internet and phone-line cuts on Friday and Saturday – calling them a “frontal attack on freedom of expression”.
“This new standstill of various means of communications constitutes an attack on freedom of expression and an attempt to silence protesters, human rights defenders, journalists and bloggers,” said Offner.
“The authorities must immediately lift the suspension of Guinéematin.com news website and the restrictions on access to internet and social media so that everyone can freely express himself and journalists can do their job.”
A former opposition activist, Conde became Guinea’s first democratically-elected president in 2010 and won re-election in 2015.
Critics accuse him of drifting towards authoritarianism, however.
In March, the octogenarian president pushed through a new constitution he said would modernise the country.
It also allowed him to bypass a two-term presidential limit, which provoked mass protests from October 2019, during which security forces have killed dozens of people.
Before assuming office, Conde had been a long-standing opposition figure who was jailed and exiled for his views against Guinea’s military government.
Diallo is a former prime minister who also finished runner-up to Conde in the 2010 and 2015 elections. Africanewsguru update.
Gunfire rang out across Guinea’s capital Conakry on Friday as security forces attempted to disperse protesters after results showed President Alpha Conde winning a high-stakes election that the opposition denounced as …
Gunfire rang out across Guinea’s capital Conakry on Friday as security forces attempted to disperse protesters after results showed President Alpha Conde winning a high-stakes election that the opposition denounced as unconstitutional.
Conde, 82, won twice as many votes as his nearest rival, opposition candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo, with 37 of 38 districts counted, according to preliminary results from the election commission.
The president’s decision to run for a third term has sparked repeated protests over the past year, resulting in dozens of deaths, including at least 17 in skirmishes since Sunday’s vote.
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor warned on Friday that warring factions in Guinea could be prosecuted after fighting erupted.
“We are continuing to closely monitor developments on the ground. The violence must stop,” Fatou Bensouda said in a tweet.
I wish to repeat this important reminder: anyone who commits, orders, incites, encourages and contributes in any other way to crimes is liable to prosecution either by the Guinean courts or the ICC, she said.
Conde said a constitutional referendum in March reset his two-term limit, but his opponents said he was breaking the law by holding onto power.
Diallo’s camp said it has found evidence of fraud and will contest the result in the constitutional court.
Gunfire was heard on Friday in the Sonfonia neighbourhood of Conakry, where Diallo supporters clashed with security forces, witnesses said.
“There were warning shots. The police intervened to clear the barricades and disperse the demonstrators,” Oumar Camara, a resident, reported.
Diallo, who was prime minister under authoritarian leader Lansana Conte, has said security forces barricaded him inside his house.
Police also raided his party headquarters in Conakry, the opposition leader said this week, tweeting agents were “destroying everything”.
Security Minister Albert Damantang Camara confirmed the party’s premises had been “sealed off” under an open judicial order because “messages contrary to public order and national unity were broadcast”.
He said Diallo’s home was being guarded for “security reasons”, without elaborating.
Meanwhile, young people on Thursday erected barricades in the capital, knocked over rubbish cans, lit fires and hurled stones at police in riot gear who responded with gunfire, according to witnesses.
In other parts of the country, clashes broke out in the towns of Pita, Labe and Mali.
Saadou Nimaga, secretary-general of the mining ministry, said several train cars carrying fuel belonging to Russian aluminium producer Rusal were also attacked in Sonfonia.
Images shared on social media showed black liquid seeping out of fuel tanks.
Rusal said in a statement that supporters of an opposition candidate blocked the railway tracks and road it used to move bauxite, an aluminium ore, to port but traffic had since resumed.
Guinea has the world’s largest bauxite reserves.
In a statement, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy called on all parties to end the violence and said election disputes should be resolved peacefully through legal channels.
Conde, a former opposition leader who was sentenced to death in 1970 by Marxist President Sekou Toure, finally won the top job in 2010. His election raised hopes for democratic progress in the country but critics say he has stifled dissent.
Diallo, 68, finished runner-up to Conde in the 2010 and 2015 elections.
Internet and phone access were severely disrupted on Friday, residents and digital rights groups said. Authorities in Guinea, as in much of sub-Saharan Africa, have in the past cut internet during times of unrest.
The government was not available to comment on internet access on Friday, but network data for monitoring group NetBlocks showed the internet was disrupted from 07:30 GMT on Friday morning, including on leading mobile operator Orange. Africanewsguru update.
Eight civilians and two policemen were killed in Guinea’s capital Conakry in clashes between security forces and opposition supporters after a tense presidential election with results showing President Alpha Conde in …
Eight civilians and two policemen were killed in Guinea’s capital Conakry in clashes between security forces and opposition supporters after a tense presidential election with results showing President Alpha Conde in the lead.
Guinea’s security ministry announced the death toll on Wednesday following last weekend’s vote.
This strategy of chaos was orchestrated to jeopardise the elections of October 18, the ministry said in a statement, adding numerous people were wounded in the unrest, without providing a specific figure.
Opposition supporters burned barricades in the streets on Wednesday after initial results showed Conde ahead in vote-counting.
At least three people died today [Wednesday] that I saw with my own eyes … and about 10 others were wounded, Mamadou Keganan Doumbouya, a security reported.
Hadjiratou Barry, a resident of an area where clashes were taking place, also said her brother had been shot dead. A local doctor, who declined to be named, said he received two dead bodies and nine injured people at his clinic.
Supporters of Conde’s main rival, Cellou Dalein Diallo, set alight piles of old furniture and burned tyres in some opposition neighbourhoods of Conakry. Police dispersed protesters with tear gas.
Clashes broke out on the Prince’s Road. A policeman was killed, Security Minister Damantang Albert Camara told Reuters news agency, referring to a major thoroughfare in the capital that runs through opposition strongholds.
Diallo has claimed victory in the vote based on his campaign’s tallies.
The push for a third term for Conde, 82, has sparked repeated protests over the past year, resulting in dozens of deaths. He says a constitutional referendum in March reset his two-term limit; his opponents say he is breaking the law by holding onto power.
Conde on Wednesday appealed for calm and serenity while awaiting the outcome of the electoral process in a social media post. Africanewsguru update.
Vote counting is under way after Guinea’s high-stakes election in which the 82-year-old President Alpha Conde is seeking a controversial third term. Sunday’s vote follows months of political unrest, where dozens …
Vote counting is under way after Guinea’s high-stakes election in which the 82-year-old President Alpha Conde is seeking a controversial third term.
Sunday’s vote follows months of political unrest, where dozens of people were killed during security crackdowns on mass anti-Conde protests.
Polls closed after a mostly calm day of voting, but there are already fears of post-election discord after Conde’s main opposition rival, Cellou Dalein Diallo, suggested the president may “cheat”.
“Alpha Conde cannot abandon his desire to grant himself a presidency for life,” Diallo told reporters on Sunday, warning his rival not take power using “cunning and violence”.
Before counting began, his supporters decried ballot-box stuffing and said its observers encountered obstructions at polling stations.
Guinea’s Prime Minister Ibrahima Kassory Fofana said there had been “small incidents here and there”. The results are not expected for several days.
Ten other candidates besides Conde and Diallo were contesting the poll and a second-round runoff vote is scheduled for November 24, if needed.
Political tensions during the campaign raised the spectre of ethnic strife, with Conde accused of exploiting divisions for electoral ends – a charge he denies.
Security Minister Albert Damantang Camara reported that there had been “no major incidents” on Sunday, but that he was concerned about suggestions that Diallo would not accept the result.
Camara urged Diallo to “return to his senses”. Mohamed Fode Camara, a social affairs ministry employee, said he “feared the day when results are announced”. “God will save us,” he said, adding that Guineans “want peace, not a fight”.
Guinea’s politics are mainly drawn along ethnic lines: the president’s base is mostly from the ethnic Malinke community and Diallo’s from the Fulani people.
Much of the tension in Guinea relates to a new constitution Conde pushed through in March, in defiance of mass protests, arguing that it would modernise the country.
The move controversially allowed him to bypass a two-term limit for presidential terms. After decades as an opposition activist, Conde became Guinea’s first democratically elected president in 2010 and won again in 2015 but rights groups now accuse him of veering towards authoritarianism. Africanewsguru update.
