Wednesday, July 9, 2025 marks a year of the abduction of Oumar Sylla alias Foniké Mengué, national coordinator of the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC); and Mamadou Billo Bah, organiser of the FNDC and coordinator of the Tournament the Page Guinea movement (TLP-Guinea). The abduction occurred while the two were participating in a peaceful campaign denouncing media censorship in Guinea.
On the said day (July 9, 2024), the two activists were reportedly arrested by elements of the Special Forces Group and Guinea’s National Gendarmerie, on the orders of the President of the transition, General Mamady Doumbouya. They were subsequently taken to an unknown destination.
Activist Mohamed Cissé, also a member of the FNDC, was also arrested at the same time as Foniké Mengué and Mamadou Billo Bah. He was, however, released the next day. Cissé subsequently provided details about how they were taken away in a video.
Persistent silence from the authorities
On July 17, 2024, the General Prosecutor of the Court of Appeal of Conakry issued a statement stating that neither the security forces nor the country’s penitentiary institutions were holding the two men.
On the same day, turning the Page Guinea (TLP) sent a formal request to open an independent, impartial and transparent investigation to the UN.
Despite numerous calls and follow-ups by other organisations and their lawyer, including appeals by their wives to the First Lady and her mother, no concrete information was shared about the whereabout of the two.
On July 26, 2025 when government spokesman Ousmane Gaoual Diallo broke the silence and spoke about the case on France 24, he only stated that the military have denied arresting the two men as accused by the FNDC.
MFWA’s call
On the occasion of the one year anniversary of the abduction of the two activists, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) joins the calls made by other human rights organisations, the international community and the lawyers of their spouses, to demand accountability for the disappearance of Oumar Sylla and Mamadou Billo Bah. The MFWA urges the government to conduct an independent and transparent investigation into the disappearance of Foniké Mengué and Mamadou Billo Bah and make the findings of the investigations public.
The organisation also calls on the Guinean authorities to equally investigate the whereabouts of Habib Maourane Camara, whose disappearance also remains unexplained.
