Two officials of the anti-junta movement arrested in Guinea

The arrests are the latest in a long series of detentions of opposition parties since the military seized power in September 2021 under the leadership of Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, who has since been sworn in as president and promoted to general.

Sylla, better known as Fonike Mengue, and Bah are “being held in the gendarmerie’s investigative department,” the FNDC said.

A Justice Ministry official declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

The FNDC was at the forefront of the protests against former President Alpha Condé, who was ousted in 2021.

The civil society collective is one of Guinea’s last opposition voices and is trying to mobilize support for a return to civilian rule in the poor West African country plagued by a turbulent political history.

The authorities dissolved the FNDC in 2022 after banning all demonstrations.

Sylla, the national coordinator of the FNDC, was arrested several times under both Conde and Doumbouya and spent several months in prison.

Bah, who heads the organization’s branches and mobilization, was detained for nearly four months last year.

During demonstrations demanding the release of the two men, a third FNDC leader and all political prisoners, seven people were killed, according to the opposition, but the police deny this.

The arrest of the two on Tuesday came just days after calls for mobilization for the restoration of closed media outlets, against the deterioration of living conditions and “other errors of the transition,” the FNDC said.

At the end of May, the authorities revoked the licenses of four of Guinea’s leading private radio stations and two television stations.

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