Guinea: Unarmed People Shot, Beaten to Death in Conakry

Security forces have killed at least three people in election-related violence in Guinea’s capital, Conakry, including two who were shot in the back and one who was beaten to death, Amnesty International has revealed.

According to AI, three others were killed in Conakry, with and at least 80 sustaining various forms injury, in clashes between supporters of rival parties. Across the rest of the country, at least seven others died in violence between supporters.

The killings happened between 8 and 13 October, immediately before and after the country’s Presidential election. With the election results disputed, and local elections to be held in 2016, reports indicate that there are fears that future protests could lead to more deaths unless security forces show restraint and those suspected of firing on civilians are brought to justice in fair trials before courts.

“There is clear evidence that members of Guinea’s security forces were responsible for the death and injury of unarmed civilians. There could be no justification for firing at these unarmed people, and no excuse for failing to hold those suspected of criminal responsibility to account,” said Francois Patuel, Amnesty International’s West Africa Researcher, currently in Conakry.

“As long as the use of firearms by the security forces against the population continues to be tolerated by the authorities, it will be impossible to build trust or put an end to Guinea’s history of electoral violence,” he added.

Although the areas of town where the victims lived had been the scenes of protests around the election, which can often include stones thrown at security forces, eyewitnesses and family members told Amnesty International that none of those killed by the security forces were involved in violence and all were unarmed.

Those killed by security forces include a 24-year-old driver who was shot in the back by gendarmes as he walked to his brother’s house, a 20-year-old student who was clubbed to death with truncheons by six policemen and a 20-year-old carpenter whose body was left on a rubbish dump after being shot in the back in an alley by a gendarme. One of the eyewitnesses to the shooting told the organisation.

“It was just around midnight on 13 October. We were chatting next to the workshop where our friends were working. A pick-up truck from the gendarmerie drove-up the street and seven gendarmes stormed out carrying rifles. There had been violent clashes in our neighbourhood on that day, so we got scared and we ran away. They shot us and hit [their friend] in the back. We found him on a rubbish dump in the morning,” the eye witness added.

Amnesty International identified more than 80 people who had been treated for injuries in clinics in Conakry following election violence, and met eight people injured by security forces, including seven with bullet wounds.

They included a group of three friends, aged between 17 and 21 years old, who were shot by gendarmes in Sonfonia Gare II on 10 October, with AI adding that there was an evidence of live ammunition at the site that matched weapons used by the security forces.

One of the victims described what happened: “We were at our Qur’anic school when we heard a woman scream in the street so we went out to see what was happening. There were pick-up trucks from the gendarmerie and the police in the street, some were taking down the barricades on the road. A gendarme aimed at us. We got scared and tried to go back in the school. I was hit in the arm, my friend was hit in the knee and another in his lower back where the bullet is still lodged. Another youth was shot dead just down the road.”

Eyewitnesses also told Amnesty International that a number of policemen and gendarmes took part in the pillaging of Koumi supermarket close to Medina after it was attacked by men wearing campaign T-shirts on 8 and 9 October who ransacked a restaurant and set fire to cars, boutiques and generators.