Guinea opposition party says one of its officials abducted

A high-level member of a main opposition party in Guinea was abducted from her home in the capital, her party said Saturday, the latest disappearance in a country accustomed to kidnappings of junta opponents.

Nene Oussou Diallo, a member of the UFDG party's national executive bureau, was taken by "uniformed agents wearing balaclavas and arriving in unregistered pickup trucks" from her home in Conakry on Friday morning, the party said in a statement.

"Given the modus operandi, it is reasonable to believe that Ms Diallo is the victim of enforced disappearance", the UFDG said.

The party's exiled leader, Cellou Dalein Diallo, condemned the abduction on Facebook, calling for an immediate release and holding the junta responsible "for anything that might happen".

Efforts to locate Nene Oussou Diallo have so far been unsuccessful, he added.

Abductions have multiplied in the west African country since General Mamady Doumbouya came to power in a 2021 coup.

In late December, Doumbouya was elected president of Guinea, with his inauguration scheduled for January 17.

Although he initially pledged not to run for president after seizing power four years ago, Doumbouya ultimately stood for election in a race from which all main opposition leaders were barred.

Cellou Dalein Diallo said Nene Oussou Diallo was regularly approached to join the junta's governing body, the CNRD, as well as a dissident branch of the UFDG.

"She consistently declined these offers", he said, adding that despite threats of arrest and kidnapping "she never ceased to publicly affirm her loyalty to the UFDG and its president".

In December, Guinean authorities extended a suspension of the UFDG, which was first put in place in August.

Numerous opposition and civil society leaders have been arrested, convicted or forced into exile under Doumbouya while enforced disappearances and kidnappings multiplied.

In November, musician and opposition figure Elie Kamano, who lives in exile, said four of his relatives were kidnapped.

And in September, exiled journalist Mamoudou Babila Keita, who is critical of the government, said his father was abducted "by unknown assailants".

Two leading anti-junta activists, Oumar Sylla, better known as Fonike Mengue, and Mamadou Billo Bah, went missing in July 2024 from the capital.

And journalist Habib Marouane Camara, also critical of the government, has been missing since December 2024 after being abducted.