20 African NGOs demand investigation into Guinea mass grave

Local sources told AFP at the time that young people gathering firewood found the six male bodies in the village of Allassoyah in Lower Guinea’s Forecariah administrative prefecture last Monday.

The NGOs, including several branches of the Tournons La Page (TLP) organisation which unites citizens’ movements across a dozen African countries, issued their statement Sunday.

On the same day, Guinea’s armed forces confirmed the discovery, stating that the six bodies were transported to the hospital in Forecariah “to proceed with identification and, if possible, determine the circumstances of their deaths”.

It added that “all measures were being taken to shed light” on the discovery and stated that “investigation results will be made public”.

The statement marked the first official response to the bodies’ discovery.

The NGOs demanded that “all hypotheses be examined as part of an independent, impartial and transparent investigation”.

And they called for the investigation to be conducted “with the support of national and international forensic experts in order to formally identify the victims”.

The civil groups said the discovery of the mass grave comes on top of “at least 35 cases of enforced disappearances documented by TLP-Guinea since September 5, 2021”.

They added that the circumstances in which the bodies were found “raise fears that the victims may have been subjected to extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions”.

Since General Mamady Doumbouya seized power in Guinea in a 2021 coup, several political parties have been suspended and protests have been suppressed, while numerous opposition and civil society leaders have been arrested, sentenced or forced into exile.

The abduction or disappearance of opposition activists has also become more frequent.

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