Guinean journalist, Ibrahima Sory Barry, publishing director of the online news portal Vérité 224, has gone into exile following death threats against himself and his family.
Barry had assisted a Canadian journalist with an investigation into the 2007 death of Rachelle Wrathmall, a Canadian citizen and former wife of Guinea’s opposition politician, Rafiou Sow.
In June 2026, Isabelle Hachey, a journalist with the Quebec-based newspaper, La Presse, travelled to Guinea to investigate Wrathmall’s death. Wrathmall, who was married to Sow, founder of the Guinean opposition party, Pour le Renouveau et le Progrès (PRP), in the early 2000s, was found dead in her home in Canada on 29 June 2007. According to the Québec Police, Sow left Canada and returned permanently to Guinea on the evening Rachelle Wrathmall (his wife) died. He has since remained a suspect in her death, nearly two decades later.
Barry worked as a fixer for Hachey during the investigations, facilitating engagements, logistics, and fieldwork, and also served as a cameraman. Through this work, he helped arrange Hachey’s interview with Sow.
In the investigative report published on YouTube on June 6, 2026, Sow appears visibly upset with Hachey, saying he had not been told the interview would primarily focus on the death of his former wife. Meanwhile, the said investigative report quickly went viral on social media, garnering more than 170,000 views on YouTube within two weeks, and drawing attention from international media outlets.
While Hachey has returned to Canada, Barry has become the target of a threat in Guinea. In a phone interview with the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Barry said he realized the seriousness of the threats when two unidentified individuals came to his home looking for him and questioned his wife about his whereabouts. According to Barry, the men left after discovering that he was not at his home. Subsequently, anonymous threats flooded his inbox, including:
“You are the bastard journalist who set up Mr. Rafiou with the Canadian journalist. Know that you are a dead man. Keep that in mind. Wherever you hide, we will find you and make you regret what you did.”
Unfortunately, the threats have been extended to his family, wife, and children, aggravating his fear for their safety:
“It’s over for you and your family… sooner or later we will get you, we will get a member of your family, we will finish you and there will be no consequences” (A text message sent to Barry)
In a statement issued on June 18, 2026, the Network of Online Media in Guinea (REMEGUI) expressed concern over the situation and called on the Guinean Police to take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical safety of Ibrahima Sory Barry and his family. Even though the threats have since forced Barry into exile, he remains gravely worried that it offers no guarantee of his family’s safety.
Barry’s fear confirms a growing trend in Guinea of reprisal attacks against family members of exiled journalists, a phenomenon which silences independent reporting, pressures journalists into self-censorship, and deters them from doing their work. For instance, the father of exiled Guinean journalist Babila Keita, since September 2025, has been abducted while his son remains in exile.
The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) condemns the threats against Ibrahima Sory Barry and calls on the Guinean authorities to take all necessary measures to protect him and his family, and to investigate the threats and hold those responsible to account.
