GUINEA: Junta faces calls to free opposition leader

Dozens of members of civil society and political parties in Guinea on Monday demanded the immediate release of an opposition leader arrested for allegedly “insulting” the head of the military government.

The detention of Aliou Bah, who heads the Liberal Democratic Movement (MoDel), is the latest in a crackdown on freedoms by the junta of General Mamady Doumbouya, who overthrew civilian president Alpha Conde in a 2021 coup.

Some 150 academics and journalists said in a statement sent to AFP on Monday that the “arbitrary” arrest of Bah was “part of the policy of systematic elimination of people opposed to the arbitrariness and excesses of” the junta’s ruling National Committee of Reconciliation and Development (CNRD).

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