A Journalist is Abducted in Guinea as Military Authorities Tighten Grip on Media

By MONIKA PRONCZUK

1:22 PM EST, December 4, 2024

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — An investigative journalist was abducted by men in security forces uniforms in Guinea’s capital, his wife and his lawyer told reporters Wednesday, as the military regime continues to tighten its grip on independent media.

Habib Marouane Kamara, the editor-in-chief of the online investigative outlet lerevelateur224.com, was headed to meet with a businessman and a friend in Conakry on Tuesday evening, his wife, Mariama Lamarana Diallo, told reporters Wednesday in the city.

Diallo said that, according to the friend who was with her husband, they were stopped by men wearing security forces uniforms in a pickup.

The policemen broke the rear windshield and took Kamara out of the vehicle by force, the friend said, an account which was corroborated to The Associated Press by a witness who asked not to be named for fear of repercussions.

The men beat Kamara with batons until he fainted, and then picked him up and threw him in their truck, and drove off, Diallo said. Kamara’s friend was also forced into the police vehicle, but was then released and has gone into hiding.

Kamara’s wife and his lawyer, Salifou Beavogui, said they have not heard from Kamara since yesterday.

“I am speechless,” Diallo said before breaking into tears.

Guinea has been led by a military regime since soldiers in the West African nation ousted President Alpha Conde in 2021. The West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS has pushed for a return to civilian rule and elections are scheduled for 2025.

Earlier this year, the military authorities dissolved dozens of political parties and placed two major opposition ones under observation. The transitional government has yet to announce a date for elections.

Guinea is one of a growing number of West African countries, including Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, where the military has taken power and delayed a return to civilian rule. Earlier this year, the military junta in Burkina Faso extended its transition term by five years.

Col. Mamadi Doumbouya, who leads Guinea, overran the president three years ago, saying he was preventing the country from slipping into chaos and chastising the previous government for broken promises. However some critics have found Doumbouya no better than his predecessor.

In February, the military leader dissolved the government without explanation, saying a new one would be appointed.

Doumbouya has rebuffed attempts by the West and other developed countries to intervene in Africa’s political challenges, saying Africans are “exhausted by the categorizations with which everyone wants to box us in.”

Since coming to power, the military junta has been tightening its grip on the independent media, according to rights organizations. Social networks and private radio stations have been cut off, information sites have been interrupted or suspended for several months without explanation, and journalists have faced attacks and arrests.

“Despite media pluralism, journalists and the media face obstruction and attacks that have become dangerously commonplace,” Reporters Without Frontiers said in a statement earlier this year.