DAKAR: The mother of a Guinean political dissident living in France was “abducted” in Guinea last weekend by “hooded individuals in civilian clothing” and taken to an unknown destination, her family told AFP.
Abductions and enforced disappearances of opposition figures and their relatives have become increasingly frequent in Guinea, which is ruled with an iron fist by President Mamady Doumbouya, who came to power in a 2021 coup and was elected president last year.
Magnama Sagno, who is in her fifties, was abducted late Sunday morning in the village of Moribadou, near the regional capital of Beyla in southeast Guinea, her son Falikou Kourouma told AFP Wednesday.
Kourouma, who goes by the name “Zoulouwane,” is a member of the RPG, the party of former president Alpha Conde, who was kicked out of office in the 2021 coup.
“My mother runs a shop where she sells drinks and food. The abductors posed as customers. They forced her into a pickup truck,” Kourouma said by phone.
The account was corroborated to AFP by other witnesses.
“She should not have to pay the price for my actions. All I ask is that she be released,” said Kourouma, who is active on social media and a vocal critic of Guinea’s government.
He said that the gendarmerie arrived at the scene of the abduction Sunday. Guinean authorities could not be reached for comment as of Wednesday.
In recent months, several activists, artists and a journalist living in exile and opposed to the Guinean government have had their relatives abducted.
Since Doumbouya took power, several political parties have been suspended, protests have been banned and suppressed, and many opposition and civil society leaders have been arrested, convicted or forced into exile.